Xfinity outages refocus attention on failing infrastructure in Westbard area of Bethesda

Just when the Westbard area of Bethesda had several months of respite from an ongoing series of Pepco electricity brownouts, a barrage of Xfinity service outages has hit the community over the last two weeks. At least three sustained Xfinity outages have been reported by residents in that area during that period, all lasting for several hours. The latest occurred yesterday morning around 7:00 AM, residents reported, and continued for a large portion of the business day. Comcast indicated that up to 2000 Xfinity customers lost service during Monday's outage, but has not given an explanation for the recent series of extended service interruptions.

Loss of Xfinity service no longer just means the inability to watch cable TV. In the working-from-home era, such extended outages could result in residents losing money, or being fired from their jobs. Many so-called "smart" appliances, devices and doorbells require Wi-Fi to operate. And customers relying on Xfinity for home phone service are left without the ability to even make emergency calls.

The outages have returned attention to the question of the adequacy of infrastructure in the Westbard area, where Montgomery County has approved the potential construction of thousands of new housing units in 2016, and will likely approve thousands more on River Road in the coming years. County Council and Planning Board members rudely brushed aside infrastructure concerns raised by residents during that two year approval process, but those residents have once again been proven correct. 

Westbard area residents and utility customers have not been informed why they are experiencing outages since the redevelopment of the area began in 2018. Montgomery County elected officials are nowhere to be found on the matter, and have not been representing their constituents or holding anyone accountable. The question on many minds is, if the utility infrastructure cannot even handle the current population, what will service be like when thousands of new residents are added to the load?