Landline summit
Frontier spokesman responds to service complaints
Two Marathon County committees on Thursday heard residents complain that their landline phone service is unreliable, and, also lacking a good cellular telephone signal, that they are unable to dial 911 for emergency response.
What they didn’t hear, however, is that somebody will take responsibility for the problem. Heather Hoyt, town of Hamburg, told supervisors her Frontier landline telephone system fails to work much of the time. “Every time it rains, our landline goes out,” she said. Hoyt, who lives in a valley, said she is unable to get either good cellphone or internet service. That means her high school sons have trouble doing their internet homework, her farmer neighbors have trouble doing business unless they walk to a particular spot in a cornfield to make a phone call and that her mother-in-law, who is medically frail and on oxygen, is often unable to dial 911 for an ambulance.
“We need to fix the landline problem before a life is lost,” she said.
Marcia Stencil, another Hamburg resident, said her family has spent nearly $10,000 on antennas and signal boosters to try and get decent phone service, but still does not enjoy reliable service.
She said lack of phone service almost caused a tragedy. In 2008, her 18-month old child inhaled a peanut and, lacking access to a working phone, she had to drive the infant to the hospital emergency room. In a second incident that happened years later, she took emergency directions from a county dispatcher but twice the telephone signal cut out on her.
“This is a situation no one wants to be in,” she told the county officials.
Stencil said the county made a major investment in new fire numbers to make sure emergency dispatch was quick and efficient. “That doesn’t mean a hill of beans if you can’t get 911,” she said.
Despite these testimonials, officials in the room failed to say they would take responsibility to improve the problem.
Scott Bohler, a spokesman for Frontier Communications, said his company had agreed to hire an additional five technicians for Marathon County to improve service, but balked at saying that the company would stand-behind a policy of restoring lost service in a certain period of time.
“Do we have a policy to restore service?” he said. “No, that’s because each customer’s situation is different.”
Bohler said deregulation of the Wisconsin telecommunications industry in 2010 means his company no longer has to provide or maintain service like it did, but, nevertheless, his company wants to provide customer service.
“We don’t want to lose any customers,” he said.
Public Safety Committee chairman Craig McEwen, Schofield, questioned whether Frontier could at least
“That doesn’t mean a hill of beans if you can’t get 911.”
Marcia Stencil Town of Hamburg commit to fixing landlines within three weeks or even three months.
“That’s a long time,” he said.
Bohler agreed, but only said that he hoped the company’s extra technicians would improve service in the county.
“I agree, I understand,” he said. “I hope our extra technicians will work to [fix landlines] within that time.”
State Sen. Jerry Petrowski (RMarathon City) said the state government tries to spend $40 billion each budget to improve broadband across the state but that it is not enough to fill the need. “This won’t be fixed overnight,” said the senator. “This is not a problem you can fix without an investment that will be huge.”
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said Frontier has received $30.9 million in Connect America Fund dollars. The senator in a Feb. 4 letter asked the company how it has spent the money. The company, which recently filed for bankruptcy, has not answered the senator, he said.
County officials underscored the seriousness of the problem but failed to take ownership of the issue.
Supervisor Jeff Johnson, Wausau, said “people will die” for lack of access, but called on higher levels of government to fix the problem.
“This is a national issue,” he said.
One supervisor, Jean Maszk, Mosinee, expressed frustration with Frontier’s inability to commit to solving the service problems.
“I feel I am getting the runaround,” she said. “This makes me want to wear barn boots.”
