BPL Stalled by Hurricanes : Returning Wednesday

We spoke this afternoon with Amanda Langley, Customer Service Manager at IBEC in Alabama. Amanda tells us that crews were pulled off for Hurricane Gustav, but will be returning to Nelson County on Wednesday September 10th to resume installation. “They’ll be back tomorrow and working continuously, unless another hurricane hits, like Ike or anything where they need them for hurricane relief,” Amanda tells NCL by phone in a Tuesday afternoon interview.

One concern that has been expressed by people already signed up for BPL is seeing all of the crews working in one specific part of Nelson on the north side of Martins Store. “When we began training, the north circuit was convenient for training. Now that we are past the training point, a crew will be on each circuit and they’ll be built simultaneously,” Amanda continues.

Another concern has been that once the network has been built and all BPL equipment is installed, will there actually be internet service? Verizon, must install specialty “T-1” lines to connect with IBEC’s lines. Until that process is completed it’s like have all of the pipes installed in your home, but no water. “We scheduled our T-1 installation 90 days ahead of the actual deployment,” Amanda adds. According to those calculations the request would have been put into Verizon sometime in the early summer. As of this post, the lines have not been installed.

IBEC has asked that anyone who has received their modem to call the number enclosed in the box and register the modem with them in Alabama. The directions in the box don’t specifically say to call, but they do need customers to register their modems as they get them.

Otherwise, NCL is in the process of checking with Verizon to see what their hold up is and will let you know.

Earlier post from the morning of 9.9.08
Many of you have been e-mailing wanting to know about the status of BPL implementation in Nelson County. Today the following information was posted on the BPL site.

Hurricane Gustav Relief
September 8th, 2008
Due to problems from Hurricane Gustav, our contractor teams have had to temporarily withdraw from the area. They are scheduled to return later this week and resume their duties, but may have to be recalled again due to the impending storm, Ike. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and will have our crews back on task immediately in your area, following the storms.

We had information that crews left during Gustav, but could not confirm that. Apparently this was put on the BPl site recently.

It would be a good idea for anyone interested in checking the status to check their site here:
http://bpl.coop/deploymentnews.php?zip=22920&submit=View+Updates

We will keep you posted as we know more.

From earlier posts in August
The long awaited installation of equipment to bring faster internet to rural sections of Nelson County began Monday afternoon out of The Martins Store Substation at the intersection of Route 6 & 151. However, in spite of equipment being installed, crews are still waiting on specialty circuits to be hooked to their equipment by Verizon Wireline crews. Generally, designs such as the BPL system being deployed in Nelson call for large bandwidth telephone circuits such as a T-1 or larger to provide the needed capacity to service their BPL system once installed. Since the telephone circuits are a special installation, it can take several weeks for that phase to be completed.

A subcontractor crew has been assisting in the installation of special equipment along the power lines to make the system work.

The installation will continue until everyone that pre-signed has been hooked up.

If anyone gets the service and it’s working, place a comment here to let everyone know where you are and when you were activated.

We’ll keep you posted!

NCL

Previous posts from earlier information:

As we have been telling you here the work to bring BPL internet service to rural customers continues in the Afton & Faber areas out of the Martins Store Substation. That will eventually service many locations along Routes 151, 6 and U.S. 29 along with other roads off of those main connectors.

Today, NCL received the e-mail update regarding the status of the service:

From: amanda.langley@ibec.net
Subject: IBEC BPL Service Update
Date: August 4, 2008 3:13:32 PM EDT
To: info@nelsoncountylife.com

Dear Customer,

Thank you for signing up for IBEC’s BPL Internet Service. We have received your setup fees and are preparing to ship your BPL modem. You should be receiving your modem within the next two weeks. Because you have signed up for service during our deployment phase, you will be among the first customers in your area to have service. Signing up during this period also waives your installation fee because our crews will install equipment outside your home or business as we deploy the service on the powerlines in your area. We plan to have service up at your location within six weeks of receiving your modem, but will try our best to make this wait as short as possible.

In order to minimize delays, please call IBEC Customer Service to register your modem as soon as you receive it.

IBEC’s toll free number is 1-888-IBEC-BPL (1-888-423-2275) Option 1.

We look forward to serving you.

Thank you,
IBEC Customer Service

IBEC is supposed to be contacting us with more details, but as of this e-mail has not been in touch with us. We will let you know, when we know.

Anyone that gets the service or sees activity, please drop us a message here or post a comment on this thread (by clicking on the topic heading / title at the top which opens the comment section up below) so we can let others know.

NCL