The Deming Headlight: Xfinity outage riles city

DEMING — Back-to-back, prolonged service outages left Comcast internet customers in Deming without internet service for a total exceeding three days.

As confirmed by the company, Comcast’s Xfinity internet service went down first on Thursday afternoon at approximately 1 p.m. for about eight hours. During the afternoon, some businesses were forced to accept only cash, while some — including the Peppers Supermarket Old Glory gas station and convenience store and the Circle K further south on the Columbus Highway — simply closed their doors. Other businesses, subscribing to other providers, carried on as normal.

On Friday, service went down again around 8 p.m. for an outage that would last through the weekend and most of Monday. After 68 more hours, Xfinity began notifying customers that service had been restored a little after 4 p.m.

Altogether, Xfinity was dark for 76 hours between Thursday and Tuesday.

Comcast did not respond directly to queries from the Headlight, stating through a publicist that Xfinity’s third-party fiber network had been compromised Thursday during construction work unrelated to Comcast’s operations.

When state Rep. Jenifer Jones, R-Deming, made inquiries of her own, she heard from area vice president Chris Dunkeson that the fiber system, operated by telecommunications company Lumen, remained under repair.

“From what I understand, the interruption in fiber network is near Los Lunas and affects a large area to the south,” Jones wrote in a statement issued via social media. “I wish I had better news to report as Internet access is critical for those of you who work or attend school online.”

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