High Speed Internet Makes the Grade

In the year and a half since installation, Cory Shaw said he can’t believe how transformative United’s high-speed internet has been to his life and career.

As an information security officer in charge of securing technology at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, he said he remembered many nights having to go into work early in the morning to complete a task when his old internet wasn’t working. When it was, he’d spend three times as long completing tasks due to slower speeds, he said.

“We went through five different providers trying to find one that would allow me steady internet access for work,” Shaw said.  “For the first time since we’ve lived in our house, I have not had to worry about getting up at 3 o’clock in the morning and driving to work. I’m able to know that the co-op’s internet will be available anytime I need it.”

Shaw was not alone in his happiness with United’s high-speed internet. Members gave their experience a 90 out of a possible 100 points for the first quarter of 2024.  United members also rated their electric service an 82 out of 100 points.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the score for our internet service, especially considering that portion of our business is still relatively new,” said United CEO Cameron Smallwood. “We are consistently receiving high marks regarding our members’ online experience. That’s a testament to the network design we’ve employed, the redundancies we continue to add and the care in which our employees provide exceptional service and value. And while we understand many members were irked by the usage it took to stay warm during January’s four-day cold spell, our employees continue to strive to improve our electric score by dedicating themselves to serving our members with exceptional service in everything that we do.”

Shaw’s wife, Joanna, said she was also equally impressed with her high-speed internet experience. As an associate professor in the Department of Management at Tarleton’s Dr. Sam Pack College of Business, being able to connect with students and fellow faculty members at home has become more of a necessity than a luxury, especially in the days since the COVID-19 pandemic. She works at least two days a week from the couple’s home if she’s not in the office.

“As a professor at a university, I’m never just in the office,” she said. “I work all the time. Tonight, we’re getting ready for finals, so I will be grading upstairs for many hours. I think it’s important to have quality internet consistently. Until we had fiber from the co-op, we didn’t have it. I can’t tell you how much frustration we’ve had over the years living here. And I think Cory was the one that called every month to ask, ‘When’s fiber coming.’  He’s persistent.”

Though the couple’s two teenaged daughters are too young to remember internet through a dial-up modem, Joanna said they are enjoying the more entertaining aspects of high-speed internet.

“They’re streaming all the things right now,” she said. “I think our girls appreciate the fact that they don’t remember dial-up days or modem days or any of that. It blows their mind to have the ability to stream a movie while one of them is working on an assignment. I mean, we’re definitely all using it. It sure does make it nice.”

Maria Ruiz, who also resides in Stephenville, took time to mention how happy she was with the installation process at her home on a recent Instagram post.

As an instructional designer for a blueberry farm, having a quality internet connection she can depend on to attend meetings is required for her career.

After she discovered that the layout of her home affected the performance of her internet connection upstairs in her office, she called United to help remedy the situation. Despite cramped conditions in her attic and an hour-long diagnostic procedure trying to find what was causing her 300 mbps speeds to drop to 40 in her office, she said United Internet Service Technicians Layton Hightower and Diego Tovar worked diligently until they discovered the issue and remedied it that day.

“They were trying everything they could,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘They’re going to give up.’ I was thinking they were just going to give up and I was just going to have bad internet service. But they didn’t. They tried everything. And they finally figured out a mistake that AT&T had made by leaving some of their old cables. They were able to connect my ethernet directly to my computer, which solved 99 percent of my problems. They literally made my whole experience working so much better.

“They went into my attic, and I have some insulation up there, and some of the insulation fell on the ground. One of the gentlemen said, ‘Hey, do you have a broom?’ I asked for what, and he said, ‘Oh, to pick this up.’ He cleaned it up even though he didn’t have to. So, I really, really appreciated that.’

Chris MacIntyre, vice president of internet services, said that internet users love speed, but they want reliability most of all. United’s responsiveness and ability to resolve the issues help United’s internet stand out from the crowd.

“The 90 is a really good score, and we appreciate members taking the time to let us know where they think we’re successful and where we can improve,” he said. “Our action items from the results are to sustain what is going well and review comments to understand what issues members are having. Then, identify the gap or issue, review processes and procedures, test corrections, implement the change and measure the results.  The United team cares a great deal about our membership’s satisfaction, and that elevated care is what I see when I see a score of 90.”    

While members regularly mentioned the effect of high electric usage on their bills in their responses, many also said they were pleased with the level of service they received from the co-op’s electric service. Reliable service, prompt and caring help from member service representatives and friendly and knowledgeable employees were noted regularly by those surveyed.

“While an 82 is a good score compared to the average investor-owned utility or cooperative score, we always strive to do even better because United has high expectations of our employee group,” said Jeff Pannell, United vice president of business & community development. “Our employee group truly understands and believes in our mission statement of providing exceptional service and value to our membership, and that is something we are extremely proud of at United.”

Alan Robertson said he has been a United member for the past 23 years. The retired Lockheed-Martin project manager from Tolar said he’s never had an issue and is pleased not only with the reliability of his service, but also with the assistance he’s received from employees.

“The quality of service, the quality of people that have come out for some reason to do maintenance, or if I needed to come to the office, I have never had a bad experience,” he said. “Our electricity virtually never goes off. When we built the house, we had to have you guys come out, and one of your engineers helped me with figuring out where to move the poles because the line was going to run across the house. It was just a pleasure. He was very professional, met all of our needs and answered my questions. It was just a very, very pleasant experience from a top-notch company.”