Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Scott Williams Residents fill up the Richmond Town Hall for a meeting Wednesday to urge Frontier Communications to improve internet service in rural areas.
Residents of rural Shawano County pleaded for better internet service Wednesday in a heated exchange with industry representatives who promised improvements for some, but not all.
The standing-room-only crowd at the Richmond Town Hall included rural homeowners and others who say their internet service is slow and unreliable compared with what is available in larger urban communities.
“It’s just ridiculous,” said Richmond resident Nathan Hoffman, who joined more than 100 others in packing the public meeting.
Frontier Communications Corp. sent representatives to explain existing service levels and to outline the company’s plans for installing upgrades.
John Van Ooyen, general manager for Frontier, told the crowd that internet providers like Frontier have become overloaded as usage has escalated. In less than 10 years, the average customer’s internet usage in the United States has doubled to more than five hours a day.
Van Ooyen said his company is expanding its capacity as quickly as possible, but he said some rural areas continue to lag behind other communities that have been modernized.
“I understand your frustration,” he said. “I know you’re here for a reason.”
Poor internet service in rural regions is hardly unique to Shawano County.
The federal government has announced plans to invest $10 billion nationally over the next few years to help telecommunications companies wire rural communities with the same sort of high-speed capability already available in urbanized settings.
For its part, the state of Wisconsin is contributing $1.5 million annually under a similar program that started in 2013.
Residents said Wednesday the improvements have come too slowly for them.
Laurie Hoppe, who lives in the town of Wescott, said she gets Frontier service at home, but she is forced to drive to a convenience store 2 miles away and use the store’s internet service because her connection at home is slow and ineffective.
“It’s very maddening,” Hoppe said.
The gathering Thursday at Richmond Town Hall was organized by residents and town leaders as a way of informing the public about the issue and also as an opportunity to show Frontier how badly local service improvements are needed.
Van Ooyen said the company has invested $121 million in system improvements over the past four years, and more work is continuing. Under the federal Connect America Fund, the company expects to receive $31 million in government assistance annually for the next six years.
Combined with more investment by Frontier itself, that money will allow the company to upgrade service for thousands of customers. But the federal government has rules restricting where the funds can be spent, and some in the town of Richmond could get left out.
A map displayed Wednesday showed that Frontier’s improvements by 2020 would reach approximately half of the town of Richmond. Van Ooyen said preliminary calculations show that 197 households in the town are in the upgrade-eligible geographic area.
The company would try to position new high-speed facilities in a way that indirectly benefits those outside the upgrade zones, Van Ooyen said.
“Our goal is to hit as many households as possible,” he said.
Some residents raised their voices and objected loudly, saying that they were paying more than $40 a month, in some cases, and they wanted better service.
When Van Ooyen explained that the internet has become deluged by such popular services as Netflix and YouTube, one resident shouted: “We don’t get nothing like that out here.”
Cindy Weisflock, of the town of Richmond, told the Frontier representatives that they were being too technical in their explanation. Weisflock said she wanted to know only if she could expect to have better service soon.
“I’m 70 years old,” she said. “I want to be able to get on the internet before I’m dead.”