16-07-2025
'Nearly 10%' of Xfinity customers in Albuquerque affected by internet outage
Jul. 15—Thousands of Xfinity customers in Southeast Albuquerque have been without internet service for almost 24 hours.
"Nearly 10% of residential and business customers in Albuquerque are impacted," said Comcast spokesperson Kyle Biederwolf. Comcast owns Xfinity.
The outage started about 6 p.m. Monday and was ongoing as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. This story will be updated if Xfinity internet service resumes.
Comcast confirmed its technicians are on site working to restore internet service.
"We know any time without service is frustrating and apologize for the inconvenience to our customers," the company said in a statement to the Journal.
What caused the outage?
Nodes across Albuquerque were down due to "damage by a third party," according to a text message Xfinity sent to affected customers. Xfinity did not specify the third party
New Mexico Gas Co. took responsibility for damaging the internet line.
Tim Korte, public information officer for NMGC, said a team "struck and damaged" the line while responding to a gas leak near Elm and Silver.
"We identified the leak and learned that it occurred after a third party was performing a bore to install a fiber optic cable," Korte said.
Documents from NM811 — a website that handles communications between utility companies and people or companies planning to do digging activity — listed Denca in the area around the time of the gas leak.
Denca is listed on the documents as a contractor for Gigapower, one of three companies in Albuquerque that install fiber optic lines.
"Contractor (Denca) hit two inch plastic line with bore head," the documents stated. "Two inch gas line was labeled plastic on ground."
Gigapower was not available for comment.
