Photo courtesy Flickr user Mike Mozart via Creative Commons Licensing.
Residents across the Adirondacks have long complained about service provided by Frontier Communications.
NORTH CREEK | Frontier Communications has restored phone and internet service to the Minerva-Johnsburg area after interruptions earlier this month left some residents disconnected for as long as 10 days.
“We are aware of a service interruption in Minerva and have been delayed by a snowstorm that impeded access and diverted resources starting Friday,” Javier Mendoza, vice president of corporate communications and external affairs at Frontier, told The Sun.
‘WIDESPREAD’
But even with service again operational, residents have long complained about the provider.
“It’s been widespread throughout the town,” Johnsburg Supervisor Andrea Hogan told The Sun. “People can’t run businesses with that.”
Greg and Ellen Schaefer were without phone or internet for 10 days before service was restored last Monday.
Ellen retired to North River from SUNY Albany and planned to work remotely.
But the unreliable phone and internet service means she must often commute nonetheless.
On a good day, Schaefer said she can access a download speed of 3 megabytes per second, and an upload speed of 0.5 mbps.
“And this is supposed to be high speed internet,” she said.
Schaefer, who serves as president of the board of the North Creek Depot Railway Museum, must often work at the library.
Sometimes she and her husband even hop in their car, which has an AT&T hotspot, and cruise until they can pick up a signal at the tower near the base of Gore Mountain.
Schaefer pays $228 per month for dish, phone and internet service.
“I will ditch the dish as soon as I have an option to do something else,” she said. “Right now, we have no alternative.”
‘DIM, FLICKERING, OFF’
Glenn Pearsall, a senior portfolio manager and philanthropist, compared the service to an antique three-speed car:
“Dim, flickering and off,” he said.
Interruptions have become more frequent over the past several months.
“We’re so frustrated about the situation, but we have to maintain a sense of humor because it’s the only way to maintain sanity,” Pearsall told The Sun.
A speed test at his Garnet Lake home last week revealed a download speed of 0.69 mbps and an upload speed of 0.08 mbps.
The Federal Communications Commission defines “high speed” as 25 mbps for download speeds.
Pearsall said an upgrade for Microsoft Word that should ordinarily be completed in eight minutes can take up to 48 hours.
“And if there’s a break in the signal, I have to start all over,” he said.
Not everyone is unhappy with the service in the community.
Dwayne Spitzer, general manager of Garnet Hill Lodge, said the service has been working well since resort management met with Frontier last year to facilitate upgrades.
“We get it fine and strong now,” Spitzer said. “For the past year and a half, it’s been pretty good. I rarely get a complaint.”
‘UNCONTROLLABLE CIRCUMSTANCES’
Frontier, whose headquarters is based in Norwalk, Connecticut, offers service in rural areas largely bypassed by competing providers.
The provider says they receive trouble tickets daily in their “large, rural and geographically diverse territory” and acknowledged service issues and delays “from time-to-time to some of our customers.”
Network-related interruptions result from numerous factors, Mendoza said.
“Often these are due to uncontrollable circumstances like commercial power outages, severe weather, construction crews damaging telecom cables, cars hitting telephone poles or telecom equipment cabinets,” he said. “These causes can also delay response and restoral efforts beyond Frontier’s control.”
Interruptions can also be attributed to equipment at the customer’s end, including modems, lines and computers, he said.
“Frontier and its employees work hard to provide reliable, affordable telephone and telecommunications services,” Mendoza said. “Every single customer is important and we are committed to our customers, the communities we serve and focused on resolving issues as quickly as practically possible.”
Minerva resident Sharon Stone has found taking to social media has been the best way to get results.
After losing service for what she estimated was 30 times per day last summer, she tagged the provider on Facebook repeatedly until she got the attention of a case manager.
Now interruptions are limited to 15 times per day.
Customer service representatives are polite and professional, she said, but they don’t make policy.
“I understand maintenance happens, but I would like more clarity,” she said.
People in the tight-knit community talk and often provide differing accounts for the outages.
“It’s just when you get inconsistent answers that it becomes a problem,” Stone said.
STATE EFFORTS ONGOING
The outages come when state-funded broadband build-out efforts are moving forward.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pledged 99.9 percent of the state will have access to speeds of 100 mbps by the end of the program’s completion with 25 mbps for the most “rural and remote areas.”
Attendees packed a forum at Tannery Pond in North Creek last February detailing expansion efforts, with many complaining about poor service by Frontier.
DSL connections have been a chief target for state investment. Frontier has received funding in all three phases of the state program, including $9.7 million last January to provide service to 2,735 locations in the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and the North Country.
Claudia Mahoney, director of operations for Frontier Communications in New York state, told forum attendees the provider has invested $540 million in their in-state network since 2011.
Frontier pledged to hit the 100 mbps benchmark.
“We did not ask for a waiver for the 100 mbps requirement,” Jan van de Carr, manager for community relations and government affairs, told attendees. “That’s what we’re going to be offering.”
In response to audience member inquiries about current speeds, van de Carr said: “Our products state in our literature what you ‘may’ get. So it’s speeds ‘as fast as.’ You may not get 6 mbps every moment of the day.”
Despite the governor’s grant announcement in January, Frontier has not provided specific details for which communities will see build-outs.
But a map on the state broadband website indicates Frontier will expand or bolster their network in Chesterfield, Wilmington, Jay, Minerva and Newcomb in Essex County, as well as Johnsburg, Chester and Horicon in Warren County and Wells in Hamilton County, among other locations.
Build-outs as part of the first two phases will be completed by end of 2018, said Mendoza, and the third and final phase has a completion deadline of Dec. 31, 2019.
The state agency overseeing the build-out, Empire State Development, held a public hearing earlier this month in Elizabethtown on the project.
Customer installations as part of the third phase will be completed by Dec. 31, 2021, according to project documents.
Johnsburg also stands to be served by Slic Network Solutions and HughesNet, a satellite provider.
“We literally have a bottle of champagne put aside for the day we can disconnect from Frontier,” Pearsall said.
Are you having issues with your broadband provider? We’d love to hear about it. Call Pete DeMola at 518-873-6368 ex. 213 or send him an email at pete@suncommunitynews.com.
