Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC) Crippled by Nationwide Outage, Fined by FCC

Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) customers were unable to access Insider Monkey (shameful) or other websites early this morning, as a majority of them were hit with an internet outage that lasted in some cases for several hours. As CNBC reported today, the outage seems to have been caused during a routine maintenance operation.

“Time Warner says most services now back online, and that the outage was due to a issue with what it calls its ‘internet backbone’, that occurred during routine maintenance. The outage hit both the east and west coast, with L.A, New York, North Carolina, among the hardest hit; guys, those also happen to be Time Warner’s most concentrated areas. The Washington Post says some 80% of its customers were affected,” they reported.

Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC)  has about 11.4 million high-speed internet subscribers spread across 29 states, 80% of whom were said to be affected by the outage, which first struck at 4:30 a.m. EST. By 6:00 a.m. EST, service had been restored to most affected customers, though some lost service for several hours.

Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) is currently in the process of being bought by Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) for $45 billion, a deal that is being opposed by Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and other companies. Coincidentally enough, as CNBC noted, Comcast in their proposed merger plans claims they will be able to improve Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC)’s stability and internet service by investing in that very same backbone which seems to have failed them and their customers today.

That deal is currently under review by the Federal Communications Commission, who also happened to fine Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) $1.1 million today for not reporting today’s outages to them in a timely manner.

Disclosure: none