Comcast phone service restored

A Comcast phone service outage Tuesday was affecting customers across country — including at least three police departments in York County.

Phone service to Northern York County Regional, Carroll Township and West Manheim Township police departments went out Tuesday afternoon and apparently had not been restored by 9 p.m., according to departments' Facebook pages.

The issue was resolved as of 11:15 p.m., according to an update posted on Comcast's website.

"We're sorry for the inconvenience Tuesday's phone outage caused to our small business customers," spokesman Bob Grove wrote in a statement. "The issue has been fixed and we worked to ensure their services were fully restored as quickly as possible. We know our customers rely on us and we're committed to making it right."

Grove said he did not have an exact tally on how many customers were affected.

The stations were not able to make or receive calls. Northern Regional and Carroll Township police had recommended anyone who needed to reach them call York County 911.

The problems started about 2:30 p.m. According to Bob Grove, vice president of public relations for Comcast's northeast division, the outage was affecting business customers nationwide.

At 9 p.m., DownDetector.com reported that the York, Harrisburg and Lancaster areas were still experiencing outages. The worst hit areas of the country appeared to be Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., area, and San Francisco.

In West York, Roburrito's tweeted that they were experiencing telephone issues because of the outage.

"Comcast is having issues in West York, so calling our shop there is not turning out well. We'll let you know when that is not the case," the burrito restaurant wrote.

Two other restaurants in West York, Genova's and Reliance Cafe, also took to social media to let customers know their phone service was out but they were open for business.

Comcast issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying, “Early today an issue in our network prevented some of our small business customers from making and receiving phone calls. We’re working as quickly as possible to understand the root cause and get it resolved."

Just before 9 p.m., Comcast posted an update on its website:

"We’ve isolated the issue and are working diligently to restore your services. We will continue to provide updates as more information is available."

Customers can check for more updates at http://comca.st/29vmcMz.