I disagree with Melinda Kinney (“Charter official: Editorial mischaracterizes our work to close Maine digital divide,” Dec. 3). Spectrum/Charter Communications is not interested in closing the digital divide.
Spectrum’s high-speed wires are less than a half mile from us. When other neighbors and I have called to ask whether Spectrum intends to serve us, we are told that our road is “red circled.” When I asked the supervisor what that meant, she said, “Oh, that means we will never put high speed lines down your road, unless you would like to pay Spectrum $20,000.”
That’s $20,000 just for our home, not to the other neighbors. Did I mention that five out of six homes are occupied by people living on retirement incomes? Instead of paying Spectrum $213.74 per month for bundled internet, TV and a hard-wired phone, each month the costs are $129.99 for unreliable, poor-quality internet via satellite, $174.53 for satellite TV and $86.64 for a hard-wired phone.
Don’t tell me how wonderful your customer satisfaction is when I can’t get that service. If every town had to pay Spectrum the additional fees to bring high speed internet to all the residents, how rich Spectrum would be! I hope my town will consider creating a town network as Leeds is.
Emilie van Eeghen
Canaan
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