Software glitch sparks outage among 1M Bright House subscribers

Bright House officials are calling the software glitch that left 1 million subscribers in the Tampa, Fla., area without cable TV, phone and Internet service Tuesday its worst outage in history.

The five-hour outage not only hit Bright House subscribers, but local government and police agencies lost service as well. The outage also shut down the broadcast feed for Bay News 9, a regional news channel owned by Bright House.

While Bright House executives told media outlets in Florida that a software glitch was to blame for the outage, the MSO didn't name which technology vendor was involved with the outage. Bright House VP of corporate communications Kimberly Makki didn't immediately return a call Wednesday morning.

The outage is major blow to Bright House. It was one of the biggest news stories in Tampa on Tuesday, and government officials went as far as telling consumers that they should use their cell phones to call 911 in case of an emergency. The outage will force the MSO to find a way to convince subscribers that it will be able to deliver reliable cable, high-speed Internet and telephone service.

For more:
- The Miami Herald has this story
- the St. Petersburg Times has this article
- ABC affiliate WFTS has this video

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