To help residents and emergency personnel stay connected in the aftermath of the recent tornadoes that caused heavy destruction across Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as in Memphis and Covington, Tennessee, Comcast’s network of Xfinity WiFi hotspots is now available for anyone to use, including non-Xfinity customers, for free. Comcast is in the process of activating those hotspots today and they will remain available for 14 days.
How to Get Connected
For a map of public Xfinity WiFi hotspots, which are located both indoors and outdoors in places such as shopping districts, parks, and businesses, visit Xfinity.com/wifi. When a hotspot is within range, select the “xfinitywifi” network on a device’s list of available networks and launch a browser. Sign-in options will appear for both Xfinity customers and non-customers.
Xfinity Internet customers can sign in with their account credentials and they will be automatically connected to Xfinity WiFi hotspots within range in the future. Alternatively, they can download the Xfinity WiFi Hotspots app and sign in with their account credentials.
Non-Xfinity Internet residents should look for the ‘Get Connected’ section and agree to the ‘Terms and Conditions’. Non-customers will be able to renew their complimentary sessions every two hours. Please note that if a user does not see the ‘Accept and Connect’ button, the hotspot he or she is trying to connect to is in a Xfinity customer’s home and not open to the public.
“After severe weather events, communication is critical, so we want to do our best to keep impacted residents connected,” said Jason Gumbs, Regional SVP at Comcast. “We are proud to make our Wi-Fi hotspot network available to residents across Little Rock, Memphis and Covington during this challenging time.”
There are a few things customers can do now to stay connected, including downloading Comcast’s free mobile apps:
- Xfinity — Get updates on outages and report service interruptions.
- Xfinity Stream — View live TV or get weather updates.
- Xfinity WiFi Hotspots — Xfinity Internet customers can access millions of Xfinity WiFi hotspots available nationwide.
Here are a few additional tips and safety precautions:
- Customers should plug TV’s, modems, and cable boxes into a surge protector to protect them from damage in case of lightning or a sudden power outage.
- Emergency management procedures dictate that electricity must be restored first and Comcast must receive clearance that it is safe for our crews to begin any restoration work. Should customers experience a loss of service due to a power outage, local power must first be restored before Xfinity services can begin working again.
- If customers have electricity but not Xfinity services, Comcast recommends restarting or resetting devices, including wireless gateways, modems, routers, and cable boxes.
- In some cases, customers may have power back but not their Xfinity services because commercial power has not been restored to our network in that area.
- Customers should stay clear of downed power and cable lines in the interest of safety.
Tips for Comcast Business customers:
- Download the Comcast Business app and enable ‘Be Anywhere’ to allow another device to make calls with a business’s Caller ID.
- Enable ‘Call Forwarding’ so business calls can be received on mobile devices.
- Check that the battery backup is working so Voice Services will still be available during a power outage.
- Make sure Connection Pro services are set up correctly. The automatic wireless backup feature will help devices stay up and running.
For more information, customers can chat online with an agent, visit Xfinity.com/response or connect with Comcast on Twitter at @xfinitysupport.
