Frontier addresses increasing concerns over internet availability
Photo by CHANSE WATSON Frontier Communications representatives (from left) Steve Long, Natalie Chiles, Joel Rose and Kay Quinn listen and answer questions from local business owners during a meeting at the Wallace School District office in Silverton.
Earlier this week representatives with Frontier Communications met with several concerned local figureheads to discuss the internet dilemma that is affecting business growth within the Silver Valley.
Originally the meeting was put together by Greg Bosen, the COO of Wallace based company GravisTech and David Copelan, the coordinator for the Wallace Chamber of Commerce.
Upon being told that Wallace and most of the Silver Valley were at the cap for available business class service, Bosen and Copelan began gathering comments from other local business owners to see if they could change that.
“Several of our Wallace Chamber members have told us how the limited capacity of internet service is hampering their business growth,” Copelan said. “Toward that end, the Wallace Chamber is actively trying to increase that capacity.”
Frontier was represented by their area general manager Kay Quinn, account executive Natalie Chiles, regional head of engineering Steve Long and local manager Joel Rose.
On the local level, the technology directors from both Kellogg and Wallace school districts attended, along with several business owners and representatives from the surrounding city organizations.
Bosen set the tone for meeting by explaining his frustration.
“I have hired a new software developer,” Bosen said. “He is planning on moving here in June and he is going to be renting a house in Wallace. He and I called Frontier to set up internet service at his home and Frontier said there is a cap on new service and would not issue service or put him on a list of customers. They offered no explanation other than it says they are ‘capped.’ They put a ticket in with engineering and should get a response 24-48 hours. A second tier customer service person at Frontier said there is a cap on this central office. She also said they are taking no new connections for business or residential. As a business owner, this makes it very unstable for me to consider growing my software development firm in Wallace. I fear that if I were to purchase new office property to expand or bring engineers to Wallace, we would not be able to get internet. As a tech company, internet is imperative for my business at the office and home.”
This was just one of many examples that the Wallace Chamber of Commerce has received concerning this issue.
Long and Quinn then explained how there may be a disconnect in information between the local office and the customer service one may receive if they dial the 1-800 number.
“When someone in a call center looks up an address and the area is flagged as capped out, they don’t always know where to go from there,” Quinn said. “But we do have people available locally who can get in and take a closer look and definitely help you.”
Understanding the many different internet connections that a business may use can be overwhelming, but Quinn did say that her regional sales manager is up to the task.
However, the biggest revelation from this meeting may have been the fact that the Silver Valley is not the internet-deprived, communications-desolate place that has been discussed over recent years.
Long was adamant to dispel the notion that there is no business-class service currently available in Shoshone County.
“There is nothing stopping a business from having business-grade internet here in Shoshone County,” Long said. “But we have to talk about the factors. There are a couple that are pretty important, like where are you going to put your business? Do you need a fiber connection? If you want over 100mbps (megabytes per second) you’ll want to have fiber installed. There are cost factors there and some infrastructure factors there, but it’s very doable here.”
Now while this may sound terrific to business owners, on the residential side of things, internet will continue to be a hot topic here as the Frontier central office is currently capped for residential clients, but Frontier is working to bring in another unit that would add several more access points for residential customers.
Business owners who may be looking to upgrade their service, or are having trouble navigating their way to the right person for help should contact Frontier regional sales manager Steve Sandman at 509-885-2649.