To the Editor:

While the good folks at Frontier (Everett, Wash., customer service call center) offered as a good faith gesture to lower my monthly landline phone charge by $11, my original request for an update on DSL service was met with lots of vague responses.

I explained that while Verizon gave extremely token acknowledgement to DSL for those of us who are “rural rurals” we are anxious to get high-speed internet service at our homes. The representative assured me that Frontier IS addressing that issue: service to rural America. But how does that affect us in Jackson, Haywood, Swain and other counties?   

Unfortunately, no answer as to the important issue of “when.” Six months? One year?

A decade? “There are a lot of technical matters which have to be resolved by the engineers,” the rep told me. Then I asked the question of why don’t they give customers an updated status as to how progress is being made by the engineers? “We tried to give customers who called that type of information and when they anticipated operational date came and went without the service, there were a lot of irritated customers so we don’t do that anymore,” was the rep’s reply.

“Who can I talk to in this area who can give me an update,” I asked.

The reply was “we do have an office in Sylva.”

“May I please have that number.”

“Sorry, there is no number for that office”.

Wonderful, a communication company that you can’t communicate with locally!

My interest in the subject of DSL at our home came when a contract Frontier workman mentioned that a couple of homes way beyond ours had Frontier DSL and said we should be able to as well. My interest at that point peaked and my wife checked the internet for the Frontier customer service number.

While zip was resolved in my conversation with the gentleman at the customer service call center, I did enjoy the bantering about lack of information available for those hungering for DSL, and of course, the reduction in the monthly Frontier bill.

Frontier should at least have the public relations decency to provide information as to current status of DSL for its “rural rural” customers. Information that gives us a glimmer of hope.

David Redman

Sylva