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Comcast/South Florida Readies Itself for the 2008 Hurricane Season

Posted on: Thursday, 5 June 2008, 09:00 CDT

With another hurricane season approaching, Comcast/South Florida is making preparations by continuing to harden its facilities and finalizing its crisis response plans. During the past two years of minimal storm activity in the area, Comcast has been busy building redundancy systems for its network to give customers multiple connection points to video, internet and telephone distribution centers throughout the region.

Since the launch of Comcast Digital Voice, power back-up equipment has also been installed throughout the region so the system will have the capability of providing hours of service after commercial power goes down.

Comcast/South Florida has also expanded its restoration capability to handle outages quickly. Additional out of state contractors are on alert during the hurricane season to assist with storm repairs across the entire South Florida Region.

"If needed, these contractors will be here immediately after a storm passes," said Comcast's Regional Operations Vice President Tom Autry. "Even though we have to follow standard post-hurricane safety protocols, we've greatly enhanced the speed of our restoration capabilities."

Comcast/South Florida has also increased its availability to diesel and unleaded fuel sources in order to provide power at Comcast facilities and vehicles when service stations close and fuel transports falter.

After recent crises, call volumes at the South Florida customer service center were up to five times heavier than usual. This unprecedented traffic has prompted an updating of call center procedures. Those changes include:

-- The use of virtual Customer Care Representatives to assist with anticipated increased call volumes.

-- Power redundancy systems in the Regional Call Center, allowing phones and computers to operate if commercial power is out.

-- Automatically switching calls to other call centers when call volume reaches high levels.

Autry said Comcast is now more prepared for the potential damage of a severe storm than ever before.

"In South Florida, we live in the center of hurricane alley," said Autry. "Our network and procedures have been upgraded to meet the rigorous demands put on our system every summer and fall."

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (http://www.comcast.com) is the nation's leading provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services. With 24.1 million cable customers, 13.2 million high-speed Internet customers, and 4.6 million voice customers, Comcast is principally involved in the development, management and operation of broadband cable systems and in the delivery of programming content.

Comcast's content networks and investments include E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, The Golf Channel, VERSUS, G4, PBS KIDS, Sprout, TV One, ten Comcast SportsNet networks and Comcast Interactive Media, which develops and operates Comcast's Internet business. Comcast also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectacor, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia.

Comcast's South Florida Region, which employs more than 2,200 people, encompasses Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. Its regional offices are located in Miramar, FL.

Source: Business Wire

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