Afton – Nelson County, Virginia

Update: 1.3.09 : We have received an e-mail from a customer inquiring about activation and said they have been told by customer service they would be activated January 5th. We’ll let you know the status when the switch is thrown.

Original Post:
Today customers received this noticed from IBEC in Alabama regarding the status of BPL activation in Nelson County. According to the highlighted section below, customers in the Tanbark area of Route 151 should have service “this week” according to the e-mail blast sent to customers on New Year’s Day.

Should anyone be activated please drop a comment or e-mail here to let others know that you have been activated and what your service is like.

This is certainly positive news.

From: “IBEC Customer Service”
Date: January 1, 2009 12:07:25 PM EST
To: “info”
Subject: IBEC BPL Deployment Update – January 1, 2009: Revised

BPL Installation Update- – January 1, 2009

Last week, IBEC reported to you on the status of testing at the Martins Store substation required by Verizon prior to the activation of the T-1 Lines. IBEC contracted with a utility specialist who traveled from North Carolina and conducted tests to assess soil resistivity and other factors that would allow Verizon to confirm that a connection to the BPL system would pose no threat to the communications company equipment.

The engineer conducted the tests on December 18 and the results were submitted to Verizon the same day. IBEC updated you last week on December 24 after resubmitting information to Verizon.

Today, the Inductive Coordination & Electrical Protection (ICEP) Engineer for Verizon notified IBEC that the test data indicated that the completion of the T-1 line activation should be able to move ahead quickly, subject to confirmation that the Verizon equipment pedestal is more than 35 feet away from the substation ground grid. IBEC estimates that it is more than 200 feet away and does not foresee any further delay. This is good news and indicates that the activation of the T-1 lines is close at hand.

IBEC has resubmitted the Verizon data form to the ICEP Engineer and will be in touch with the local Verizon supervisor to coordinate the final phase of the T-1 line activation. We will share the estimated date that the Martins Store substation area will begin to pass Internet data by way of the BPL system.

There is more good news. The north Rockfish Valley T-1 injection point is scheduled to be activated by the end of this week. Once activated, Internet traffic will flow through the backbone equipment and the IBEC customer service reps will begin contacting customers to activate their BPL modems and optimize their Internet connections. That injection point will serve customers who live north of Tanbark Drive and some customers to the south of that location. Please wait for IBEC to contact you after their engineers have activated the backbone equipment.

The third BPL injection point lies to the east of Route 29. It will be powered up on January 5 and Verizon will activate it after that date. IBEC will provide you will specific information about this site after January 5.

The other component to this project is the completion of the buildout of the BPL system, or the installation of regenerators (BRU’s) that pass Internet data along the main power lines and the installation of the Customer Access Units (CAU) that are installed near the electric transformer at each subscriber’s home or business. The Davis H. Elliott contract crews have been working hard, both during Christmas week as well as during New Years week. The crews are installing about 90 units (BRU’s and CAU’s) per week and have about 300 total units to go before the initial phase of the BPL system is complete. While weather conditions and terrain can affect the present buildout rate, the crews are working hard and we hope that you will offer them encouragement when they are on your street or in your neighborhood.

We hope that this information has been helpful and encouraging and ask that you get it touch with us if you have questions or comments that will help us to serve you. To do so, you can call 888-423-2275 or e-mail us at service@IBEC.net . Thank you for your support.

Thanks for your patience,

IBEC Customer Service