from Cullen Heaney
Although Verizon Wireless did not have an outage on Orcas Island, they have been working diligently to restore their network in other affected areas in the San Juan Islands. Verizon Wireless worked hard over the weekend to be the first to fully restore its network in the San Juan Islands and surrounding area on Saturday, further underlining its network reliability and commitment to customers.
Verizon Wireless brought numerous resources to restart businesses and restore law enforcement communications as the full restoration process took place. Restoration included bringing together cell technicians, engineers, microwave specialists and crane operators to raise a six-foot microwave dish 140 feet up towers, as well as lift a microwave dish to the top of on the Mt. Constitution tower, elevation nearly 2,400 feet.
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
I just got off the phone with a supervisor at ATT Customer Service. They are, apparently, trained in how to stonewall their customers. I wanted to know if ATT has any plans to provide a backup system, as Verizon did in this article (which I read to the ATT guy). They do not. There is nobody that one can talk to. They have no capability of doing anything they are not already doing. There is no person who can come to talk to anybody here to explain what went wrong. There is nobody one can talk to who will take note of the need for better back-up systems. “This is a financial decision.” End of story.
There is nobody >higher up than the supervisor, or with more clout, or with any ability whatsoever to do anything at all about getting more back-up capability, or with any more information, < that one can talk to. Or write to. Or contact in any way at all.
So, the logical course of action then is to make your own financial decision — ditch AT&T if you can! It’s on my list of things to investigate.
I could swear that my cell was dead much of last week. Of course, that’s the case half the time anyway.