Ole Ma Bell Got Over On Me Again
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DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
Like a lot of people in the Valley, I am patiently waiting on TVIfiber to offer high-speed internet. You can check out my story on page 6 to see how this is progressing, but in the meantime I keep nursing my antiquated DSL service from AT&T – it is slow but reliable. This AT&T account at the Herald office is my final connection to the conglomerate and I have vowed that one day soon I will write my last check to Ma Bell, or whoever they are.
But I almost backslid earlier this summer when a nice, young man who is a AT&T sales rep stopped by the office and said I could upgrade to fiber for less than what I am paying for DSL, and with no contract. It sounded too good to be true, but I had heard success stories from several residential customers in the city who were offered AT&T fiber and they were more than satisfied.
I signed up and patiently waited and finally received an email two weeks later. A technician was scheduled to come to the office the next day to install my fiber. He showed up as promised the next morning, pondered the situation and explained that an engineering crew would have to get involved. I learned that while AT&T offers fiber to the buildings just south of the Herald office, there is not a connection to my building.
The technician estimated that it would take a week or two and they would be ready to hook me up. Since he was already at the office, I told him that our office landline acts quirky at times with dropped calls and other problems.
His explanation – the phone lines also utilize my existing internet to function and with the slow connection I can expect to experience problems. Not to worry he said, the fiber connection would solve my problems.
Weeks passed after that visit from the technician and I finally got a phone call with an explanation (I think) that AT&T does not offer fiber where I am located. There was a communication issue, and I could barely understand what she was trying to tell me, but as weeks passed I assumed my interpretation was accurate.
Finally I received a second phone call, again from someone who was less than fluent in English, and I was even more confused when the call ended..
Weeks passed, and I received a third call from yet another AT&T representative, and this time we could converse without a language barrier. Thank you, I thought, we can finally figure out what is going on!
My joy was short-lived – I discovered that this phone call was not prompted by my earlier order for fiber installation. Instead she called to tell me that AT&T is phasing out their DSL services and she wanted to tell me about other options for high speed internet including AT&T fiber and AT&T Internet Air.
I immediately explained that I had tried to sign up for fiber with no success. She clicked on the keyboard for a few minutes, and decided that there was no longer an order in their system for my fiber request.
“Fiber must not be available at your location,” she surmised.
You think?
“How about Over The Air internet,” I asked?
She plugged in my address, 416 Main Street, and was sad to inform me that option is not available at this location.
Maybe AT&T should change their slogan from “Connecting People to Greater Possibility” to “Fiber is Not Available in Your Location.”
At this point the whole thing was almost comical and I politely ended the conversation and stewed a little. I kept stewing and decided sharing my story could be therapeutic, so here we are!
Sadly, I’m not the only person in the Valley stewing about the internet situation. I can report that I have talked to dozens of people who live in the city and outlying areas who have problems obtaining high-speed internet. Like me, they are patiently waiting for TVIfiber. Some of these people have AT&T DSL and other have MaxxSouth.
I talked to a business owner on Main Street last week who has internet through MaxxSouth and he told me that the internet speed is slow and limits what he can do. He does occasional pod casts, and at times the service is simply not fast enough.
So now we patiently wait on a judge to decide if the BEAM office’s allocation to help subsidize TVIfiber’s fiber building in Water Valley is lawful. Many readers will recall that MaxxSouth challenged the $3.8 million that TVIFiber’s parent company, Talllahatchie Valley Electric Power Association, received from BEAM for a high speed fiber buildout that would include all areas that receive electricity from the Water Valley Electric Department.
In fairness, I can completely understand MaxxSouth’s argument that government funding should not be allocated to subsidize the buildout for fiber in Water Valley if the area already has high-speed internet available. MaxxSouth has invested their own money to provide service in Water Valley that includes cable television, telephone and internet.
The problem is that many MaxxSouth customers have repeatedly claimed that their service is not sufficient and some customers filled out forms documenting their internet speed earlier this year to help resolve this matter.
In the meantime, we all patiently wait to see what the outcome will be!
