Business, home customers decry dayslong Astound Broadband outage

Despite social media posts claiming resolution to a dayslong internet outage for a number of its suburban customers, replies to Astound Broadband's online assurances Monday indicate issues remain for many.

Astound, the sixth-largest U.S. cable operator in the U.S., bought the broadband systems of WideOpenWest Inc. for $661 million in November. This week it began converting suburban WOW! customers over to its system.

"A service interruption occurred on May 4 while transitioning former WOW! customers to the Astound network when a server unexpectedly failed to correctly authorize customer devices," the company said in a statement Monday "This event impacted some services in the Evansville, (Indiana), and Chicago markets."

The company added that all previous network level issues had been resolved by Sunday afternoon.

"Our network is working as intended," the statement reads. "We are continuing to work on a number of individual customer inquiries. While we are resolving those, we continue to monitor our network and network components to ensure everything remains stable."

The statement adds that customers still facing problems would soon be receiving individual attention and thanked them for their patience.

Arlington Heights resident Jolie Faciana Patel, the office manager of Advanced Physical Medicine and Therapy in Mount Prospect, was among those dealing with the outages.

"We're a doctor's office, but even if you're not, it's your business, right?" Patel said. "If you're a mom and pop shop or a small business, that's your bread and butter."

Patel said internet service finally was restored Sunday, but phone problems persisted.

"We're fortunate because a lot of our patients have their treatment plans kind of booked out," she said. "But it's very frustrating for people calling the office and trying to change an appointment time."