As a number of customers across the country reported Internet outages, Charter Communications says it saw service area coverage go down and it is working to resolve the issue as quickly as it can.
A company spokesperson, Kim Haas, says the company believes the issue to be "intermittent across parts of our footprint." She adds the company is not yet able to make a diagnosis as to what caused the outages.
No other comment from the company was forthcoming, nor did it offer an estimate of how many customers lost service.
The issue came to media attention after Charter users inundated social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook with complaints. Frustration grew as the company failed to immediately respond to complaints on those sites.
Charter, based in Stamford, Conn., is the fourth-largest cable provider in the United States, its website says. The company delivers phone services in 29 states and serves 5.7 million customers.
The company says it is investigating what may have caused the issue and hopes that full service for customers will be restored promptly. There were complaints of outages from Connecticut and from Minnesota over the weekend.
The issue also comes as the company is facing increasing competition from other providers, especially Google and AT&T as they roll out new, ultrafast Internet service. AT&T has just announced the launch of its flagship GigaPower for Silicon Valley, Tech Times reports. The move should help propel the company forward as it aims to boost its presence as an Internet service provider.
The company says the GigaPower network will give users the ability to have "cutting-edge" television services and the ability to stream and record as many as five HD streams at once with the largest capacity DVR -- with 1 terabyte of storage -- on the market.
"Cupertino is proud to be the first city announced in California set to receive the ultra-high-speed AT&T GigaPower network," said Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong.
On Monday, Aug. 25, the company had nothing on its web site about restoration of service, but it did issue a press release touting its $271 million capital investment in Charter's California operations. In all, it announced, "the company is investing more than $2 billion in its national network and is committed to moving to an all-digital platform across its entire 29-state footprint by the end of 2014."
Charter did not disclose the total number of customers that were affected by the outages or when service would be restored. The service interruptions have led to widespread frustration as many users have felt the company did not adequately respond to the issue even after hundreds of customers posted messages informing the company of the outages affecting their service.
