By Robert Morales —
Here we go again. No, it’s not another power outage; instead it’s an internet outage with Windstream.
This
has been a terrible week for our internet service at The Advocate.
First, it started with extremely slow speeds, and then the intermittent
outages. One minute the internet is working, the next minute it’s not
working.
As usual, we called Windstream Communications, and the
company dispatched a technician. As is always the case, the technician
is always friendly and courteous and troubleshoots every possible
possibility for the problem.
According to sources available to
The Advocate, Windstream is “in the process of making upgrades to the
system.†We’ve heard this story before.
The bottom line is very
simple: We’re paying for a very important service for which we are not
receiving the benefit of that service.
Last week, a
representative for Delcom, Inc. made a presentation about its internet
service to county commissioners. The Town of Van Horn has already
switched to Delcom. Delcom, based in Dell City, offers underground fiber
optic internet service that in theory is extremely reliable and has
little to no loss in speed.
However, Delcom requires a contract
for a certain amount of time, and that is not an acceptable option, at
least not for some business owners. In addition, there remains a
question as to how long it would take for a Delcom technician to come to
Van Horn in the event of a problem.
Windstream needs to address
this problem aggressively and take care of the problem permanently.
There is no excuse for shoddy DSL service. We do have options, such as
the new Dish Network internet and other satellite services.
It’s
time for Windstream to fix the internet problem in Van Horn. The
majority of businesses that use Windstream for internet services don’t
want to switch to another provider. However, there’s only so much
patience left, and a certain point, we will decide that Windstream is no
longer relevant.
