Internet users find disconnect
Johns Island neighbors, frustrated by lack of high-speed DSL, seek service from providers
Photo Illustration by Edward C. Fennell and Laura Gough/Staff
AT&T
A typical home installation for transmission lines and equipment required by households receiving the company's new U-verse technology. U-verse combines TV, Internet, telephone services and more, and though it's available in 19 states, it is not yet offered in the Charleston area.
AT&T
A technician works above ground connecting fiber-optic lines and equipment outside a home adding AT&T's new U-verse service. AT&T said it can't yet reveal if or when the new technology combining cable TV, high-speed Internet and telephone services will be available in the Charleston area.
Edward Fennell
The Post and Courier
Stuart Moser of Johns Island views his AOL Web page on his home computer. A computer technician by trade, Moser has high-speed Internet service from his Mount Pleasant office. But at his rural Johns Island home, he has only dial-up service, which is extremely slow and unable to handle transfers of large files or attachments.
Computer technician Stuart Moser has no problem accessing high-speed Internet connections at his Mount Pleasant office. But when he's driving to his Johns Island home after work, he might as well be traveling back in time.
From Moser's Whippoorwill Farm Road home, the Internet is accessible only by dial-up — a relic, some say, of the cyberpast, where information flows grudgingly slow and Web pages crawl into existence if they appear at all.
"It's frustrating for me and my neighbors," said Moser, a nine-year resident of Johns Island's Whippoorwill Farms community.
For a year, Moser's been contacting cable TV providers and telephone services that provide high-speed Internet. He's talked to local elected officials, attorneys and Charleston County Council staff, and circulated petitions — but has come no closer to getting high-speed Internet.
Late last week, Bill Watson, Comcast's vice president for the Charleston area, said the cable TV and Internet provider is always looking to expand its coverage area and promised to meet with Moser, who said he previously had been turned down by Comcast's installation personnel.
More than 130 households have signed and returned petitions originally aimed at persuading AT&T to extend its DSL Internet service to the southern Johns Island area, Moser said. He now hopes the petitions will help convince Comcast that it should serve the area.
"We just don't understand why 130 customers can't get this service," he said.
Moser insists there are rural areas locally that are less densely populated than his community that have either Comcast or AT&T service, or both. He said some of these households are less than a mile from his.
AT&T public information officer Amy Bristol said that, for now, AT&T is not looking at expanding DSL service.
Moser said he has hopes that AT&T will bring its newest technology, U-verse, to the Charleston area. U-verse uses fiber-optic cable to provide digital TV and high-speed Internet as well as phone service. More than 1.3 million subscribers in 19 states already are using it, according to AT&T's Web site. But Bristol said she can't say when or where the service will be offered in South Carolina. "For competitive reasons, we don't pre-announce the areas where we will offer U-verse service," she said.
Moser said high-speed Internet is essential these days. He said he uses it often for online banking, to book flights and hotels, and purchase concert tickets. His wife, Tracey, especially enjoys concerts, but Web pages move too slowly on dial-up to complete many transactions, he added.
Sending photos and other attachments through dial-up is impossible or nearly so, Moser said. He said he's used a laptop and Wi-Fi services at coffee shops and restaurants to conduct Internet chores and experimented with laptop and cell-phone-driven Internet connections from home. The cell-phone connection doesn't work well in Whippoorwill Farms because of issues with cell towers, he said.
He said satellite Internet service is way too expensive.
Watson said that Comcast monitors local developments with an eye on expansion. "It makes sense for us to extend our service, and we do it if we have the available capital," he said.
Watson said he previously was unaware of Moser's efforts to get service, and that Comcast is very interested in a community in which 130 or more households have expressed a desire for service.
Factors that might determine whether extending service to Moser's area is feasible include density of homes and whether the area requires that wiring be underground.
Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 937-5560.
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