We are here for you. We are your friends and neighbors, and we are committed to do all we can to help you during this difficult time due to COVID-19. We are already taking steps to help you adjust to working from home, and having the family home from school as well. This is going to have an effect on how much people use the internet, for work, communication, education, and entertainment.
We’ve always thought that the areas we service are a great place to telecommute from, but wow, COVID-19 concerns brings that home. We strongly recommend people that can work from home on Whidbey or in Point Roberts do so. It is wise to limit non-essential mainland travel.
Here is what we are planning for Whidbey Telecom’s serving areas, and what we recommend:
- We will upgrade your bandwidth for free for the next 30 days, if we physically can get you more speed, we will. Call to see what we can deliver to you.
- In South Whidbey we have The BiG GiG, gigabit internet available now to about 50% of our customer locations. Check to see if you are in one of our BiG GiG fiberhoods: connect.www.whidbeytel.com. If you are, and you can work remotely, let us know. Keeping people working is essential to our local economy, so we will do our best to prioritize orders that support work from home situations.
- With more demand for bandwidth at home, WiFi can become a bottleneck. If you have older WiFi equipment, it may be limiting your internet speed to your wireless devices. Our tech team can help you optimize your WiFi performance, and give you options to consider. Call us 24/7 at 360-321-TECH.
BiG GiG Facts for Remote Workers
- About half of South Whidbey customer locations can get The BiG GiG fiber network internet today. Check to see if you are in one of our BiG GiG fiberhoods: connect.www.whidbeytel.com.
- The BiG GiG is optimized for always-on performance. The fiber is underground, which is protected from weather, damage, and power outages, giving near-perfect reliability.
- The BiG GiG uses light to communicate. This uses about 1% of the energy that DSL does, and is better for our environment.
- The BiG GiG is one of the fastest connections anywhere. The BiG GiG fiber network internet is the same speed upstream and downstream, up to 1 Gigabit. (That is 20 to 100 times faster than DSL.) This is optimal for remote work, as well as online education. The streaming capability is fantastic.
- The BiG GiG fiber network is connected to the major hub in Seattle that all major tech companies are connected to. We have multiple 10 Gig connections, and we can handle a major increase of internet usage because of that.
- The BiG GiG fiber network, internet performance, is best when connected directly to a computer, via fiber or Ethernet cable. When connecting to a WiFi network, a current WiFi mesh network will give best performance to all devices. Note that WiFi is slower than a direct connection.
- Our fiber crews will be continuing to deploy our The BiG GiG to neighborhoods during this crisis so we can get as many people connected as we can. BiG GiG installers will continue as usual, with stepped up protection. If the risk increases, we will prioritize the safety and health of our workers and customers.
Whidbey Telecom supports our local employment and customers. We are right here for you. Our technicians are taking extra precautions because of the COVID-19 concern. They wear protective gloves, and regularly sterilize tools and work materials. Also, they are instructed to avoid placing themselves or customers at risk, please postpone in-home work if there is anyone at home that is not well. Our tech support and service technicians are located in South Whidbey and Point Roberts. Technical support is available 24/7 by phone and technicians are dispatched daily for in-home service. You’ll not find a more responsive and reliable team anywhere. Customer service continues to be available Monday – Friday 9am-5pm by phone.
We are here for you. We are your friends and neighbors. Thank you for the privilege of serving you.
Sincerely,
George Henny, Co-CEO
