Anyone who has high-speed Internet access on the North Coast has inevitably dealt with service interruption, but overall, AT&T representative John Britton said the North Coast fiber link installed in 2003 has a reliability rate of about 99 percent.

“The outages that did occur were issues like a fire, another time somebody who was digging cut the line — stuff like that,” he said, but added, “It was fixed pretty quickly each time.”

Britton said that extra measures have been taken to prepare for any future outages that may occur with the network that he says AT&T spent $26 million on to provide to the North Coast.

“We have strategically placed facilities near by,” Britton said. “We have the spare fiber sitting right there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And of course the point of that is to try to minimize the duration of any outage that may occur.”

But as for installing another fiberoptic line, which many local residents believe is necessary, Britton said it will be up to a another group to do that.

He noted that AT&T has already invested millions of dollars to install a fiber line “that definitely did make service more reliable,” but still has a lot of “excess capacity.” As for an alternative line, he said, “We won’t build it, but we’re a supporter of it.”

Susan Carothers, California Public Utilities Commission information officer, said that it is within AT&T’s right to sub-contract such a project with a local group.

“The carriers bear the risks of costs or construction challenges,” she noted.

If there are service-related problems once the line is made operational, she said the CPUC could open an investigation to determine what corrective measures are necessary to remedy a problem.

Britton said an alternative fiber project is already under way. Britton pointed to the local Lost Coast Communications Inc., with Director of Business Development Gregg Foster at the helm, as an organization that has taken the reins on getting an alternative fiberoptic line operational for the North Coast.

“We’ve talked with them tentatively about being a tenant, to buy some capacity,” he said — if and when the project materializes.

Foster declined to elaborate extensively on the claim, but did confirm Wednesday that, “We are working with a private entity that is currently moving forward.”

As previously reported in this newspaper, a report by the California Broadband Task Force found that 33 percent of households on the North Coast lack any broadband; which amounts to the remaining percentage of businesses and individuals that do have it and will continue to need it having to rely on only one fiberoptic line to support their needs. This can be an issue for local organizations and businesses such as schools, hospitals, banks, media and at city and county offices when the line goes down.

“There’s e-mail, which is of course a constant for many employees, and some folks need the Internet to do research,” Assistant Humboldt County CAO Phil Smith-Hanes. “Some of the more practical things that come up are payroll — which is transmitted online to Bank of America, and Health and Human Services works on a state department Web site.”

Fortunately, Smith-Hanes said, major outages occurred at the most opportune times for the county.

“We have gotten really lucky because it has been on the off-payroll week,” he said, and added that the county is exploring other options such as back-up microwave technology.

Bank of America said it has taken back-up measures to “ensure everything is accurate,” Assistant Vice President and Banking Center Manager Jeremy Clark said.

Michael Kraft, executive director of the North Coast Small Business Resource Center, said alternative fiber efforts are within reach.
“I think the solution could be pretty close,” he said.

Until a solution is decided upon, Carothers encouraged disgruntled customers to follow the complaint procedures.

“If people have a complaint, they should let us know,” she said. The first step, Carothers explained, is to try to work it out with AT&T. “Often, it can be resolved over the telephone.” If not, “then come to us.”

She said there are three ways to file a complaint: write a letter, attention CAB, 505 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, Calif. 94102; phone 1-800-649-7570, Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., or go online to www.cpuc.ca.gov and click on “file a complaint.”