Communications update: 11/16

Good afternoon everyone,

Now that power is back on for some of us, I wanted to send an update with some hopeful news.  I was contacted last week by the supervisor for all of the Verizon landline services in our region, Claude Quesenberry.  He informed me that they have replaced the pedestal out by Shiloh Church, as well as some of the worst lines in our area.  Initially, they were receiving between 20 and 30 complaints per day about service.  With these updates, they are down to 2 or 3 calls for service each day.  Personally, I have noticed a much higher call quality and no lapse in service here.  If you are still having problems, please keep Verizon and the SCC posted via their complaint forms.

Mr. Quesenberry also made note that in the next 12 to 24 months, there’s a chance we may have 5G service in our part of the county.  5G is apparently different in that it doesn’t require an actual cell tower to be installed, but they can put repeaters on things like telephone poles and power lines to basically “bounce” the signal up from Catawba or Blacksburg to cover our area.  They are well aware of our lack of service, and hopefully that will be a step in the right direction.  It’s not an immediate fix, but I am hopeful that something is in our future.

Finally, I have been working with Martha Hooker (Chair, Roanoke Board of Supervisors) and Richard Caywood (Deputy County Administrator) on this problem too.  They are also having meetings with Craig Botetourt and other communication services to see about the internet/cell service out here as well.  After all of these conversations, I am confident that the ball is rolling.  It’s still going to take time, but the county and Verizon are both very aware of our situation and starting the process to fix it. 

Moving forward, I’ll keep you posted as I hear back from folks.  Please do the same on your end as well – if your service is out, let somebody know, and if I can do anything else in the meantime, don’t hesitate to ask!

I hope you all have a great to start to the holidays

Stewart Scales