Internet Outage For Frontier DSL, Dialup Customers

June 21, 2011

Frontier Communications DSL and dialup customers in the Walnut Hill, Bratt, Molino and Atmore areas were without internet service for about five hours today.

The outage appeared to be a problem with one of the companies that provides the internet connection to Frontier, not an actual Frontier problem, according to Stephanie Schifano, a corporate spokesperson for Frontier.

The outage began about 2 p.m. and was restored by just after 7 p.m.

Comments

23 Responses to “Internet Outage For Frontier DSL, Dialup Customers”

  1. Molino-Anon on June 24th, 2011 7:32 pm

    Hahaha @Terry, discount for outage? Seriously? I worked in tech for several major ISP’s since 1995, you know what I’d tell a customer who wanted credit for a 5 hour outage? Let’s do the math $50.00 a month, roughly $1.66 per day, $0.06 cents per hour. Here’s your $.30 cent credit for the outage. Sorry It’s just business. why would a company worry about making you a happy customer when they’re the only thing going for broadband internet service for most of the area. Sure switch to Brighthouse, or use slow wifi service through cellular towers. You can’t complain to the Public Service Commission about your netz being down, they’ll laugh at you. The water company does what they want, the power company does what they want, and the phone company does what they want because they can in NE.

  2. Trapped with AT&T on June 22nd, 2011 3:42 pm

    “It would be good if someone like William would do some journalistic research and find out why AT&T chooses to bring 3G to all areas surrounding Atmore but not to Atmore?!?!?!”

    Indeed! Sometimes the power of The Fourth Estate can work wonders. I have been told a 3G tower was going in at Jack Springs Road and 65, and at Hwy 4 and 97 but that was last fall and still nothing…..

  3. Alan Bell on June 22nd, 2011 3:39 pm

    The above statement from Frontier…”not an actual Frontier problem”…is incorrect. It is Frontier’s responsibility to deliver internet service to Atmore and anything that prevents that from happening is FRONTIER’S problem!!

  4. Alan Bell on June 22nd, 2011 3:36 pm

    Not only does Brewton and Bay Minette have 3G, but Flomaton has it as well!!! I have had two AT&T representatives tell me that there are no current plans to bring 3G to the Atmore area.

    It would be good if someone like William would do some journalistic research and find out why AT&T chooses to bring 3G to all areas surrounding Atmore but not to Atmore?!?!?!

  5. Trapped with AT&T on June 22nd, 2011 3:25 pm

    William or anyone know if Atmore will ever get AT&T 3G? Brewton and Bay Minette already have it…….

  6. Albin on June 22nd, 2011 8:45 am

    I to think Frontier needs competion, I hate having to call and never know what state I am talking to!

  7. S.L.B on June 22nd, 2011 7:58 am

    I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who still has dial up service! ;) I live in Bratt,Florida and I had dial up all day yesterday, therefore didn’t know there was a problem until I read this story this A.M.

  8. yup on June 22nd, 2011 7:20 am

    I agree that there needs to be competition instead of domination. Perhaps if Frontier knew that someone else could take their business, they would provide better service. One of my children also do school with online classes. Yesterday was a HUGE inconvenience. This is becoming a much too frequent problem that I would like to not see.

    Can the public do anything to help get another company to come in and provide internet service?

  9. dnutjob on June 22nd, 2011 5:58 am

    Thankful, make your living using a computer and you won’t be saying grow up people. My sister in law works for a doctor and she has to work 7am to 4pm 5 days a week on a computer, she almost lost her job over these “down periods”. She switched to another carrier.

  10. Molino Resident on June 21st, 2011 11:21 pm

    And Ours is still NOT on!!!! Kinda Worried! I got FVLS work to do!

  11. KAE on June 21st, 2011 9:41 pm

    I am also a college student and 5 hours without internet service was a HUGE inconvenience-now days most schoolwork is done online.

    It has become a frequent occurrence and I am getting fed up with it.
    Frontier needs to get their “stuff” together-this is no way to run a business.

  12. ME on June 21st, 2011 9:04 pm

    ***thankful*** not all people get on the internet for chatrooms. There are alot of people who use online for school.

  13. William on June 21st, 2011 7:54 pm

    I’ll post this here, rather than in the story since Frontier has not yet confirmed our information.

    Unofficial information provided to some corporate customers indicated that he outage was a switch in Atlanta that’s not operated by Frontier. So it was not really their fault. Think of it as Frontier’s internet provider went down. :-)

  14. Citizen on June 21st, 2011 7:53 pm

    Ah, see if you get through to a live person, and an outage has already been triggered, their system should be able to pinpoint it to street level. If they have a known outage, they should be able to tell you if your account is effected by the outage or not. (Now, the question of whether they are actually doing that is another story).

  15. Thankful on June 21st, 2011 7:46 pm

    Thank you Frontier! People complain, but there are other options if they’re not satisfied. It’s an inconvenience to be offline for a few hours, but grow up people! Chatrooms will wait! We have a lot to be grateful for ,and we don’t appreciate it until we have to be without it for a few hours.

  16. William on June 21st, 2011 7:42 pm

    >>>That’s likely why you called and were told the problem was at your home. Enough people had not called to trigger their system to let them know it was an area-wide outage

    When I tried calling, the local number was busy. The 1-800 number had a recording informing callers that there was a total outage for “Atmore area” customers. What their regular customers service fails to realize sometimes is that Walnut Hill, Bratt and Molino connect through Atmore. They look at having a caller from Florida and see an outage in Alabama and there’s nothing in their system apparently to put two and two together. If Atmore’s down, Walnut Hill, Bratt, Molino, Monroeville and Camden, Ala. are likely down too.

  17. Citizen on June 21st, 2011 7:39 pm

    I used to work for a cable internet company. An outage is only triggered after a certain number of customer’s call in to say they are without service. That’s likely why you called and were told the problem was at your home. Enough people had not called to trigger their system to let them know it was an area-wide outage.

    Is it a flawless system? Certainly not, and I’d drop them like a hot potato if they were my provider, but that’s the reason you weren’t told it was an outage.

  18. time for a change on June 21st, 2011 7:00 pm

    Funny cause I just got off the phone with Frontier support and after 2hrs they told me they didn’t know what the problem was and they were gonna have to send out a tech to my house to fix the problem. I am so sick of Frontier I wish they didn’t own all the lines cause I would be calling Verizon right now for some internet and phone service!

  19. terry on June 21st, 2011 4:18 pm

    This is happening pretty regular lately. No internet…but they are still charging us for it. Are we going to get a discount for the hours we are without internet mr. frontier?

  20. dnutjob on June 21st, 2011 4:04 pm

    Just use verizon. I get good wireless service for my computer in the north end, no cables and no box.

  21. Dennis on June 21st, 2011 3:57 pm

    sniper…Do what you gotta do, or complain about what others do.

  22. William on June 21st, 2011 3:22 pm

    >>>awefully quiet on NE.com now

    Actually, it’s not. :-)

    I can monitor traffic, ISP’s, etc in real time. For this time of afternoon, there’s not much difference. When Frontier goes out, I can see an upward trend on Verizon, ATT and other wireless companies where people switch to their cell phones or aircards.

    Our overall traffic right now is actually a little higher than a normal 3:15 p.m. weekday afternoon. A majority of our readers do not have Frontier internet.

  23. sniper on June 21st, 2011 3:16 pm

    once again this lousey frontier service drops the ball. im glad i have a cell phone that allows me to use internet services through it. awefully quiet on NE.com now… maybe we should get COX involved in the northend.