By Scott Paul, Beacon Broadband Customer Service Director

When it comes to bringing the high-speed fiber internet experience where no one else will go, we receive multiple questions daily to Beacon Broadband’s Customer Service Department. The biggest question continues to be, “When will my address be available for service?”

Our customer service team is pleased to answer this question and let you know when service will be available to your home. However, we want to share with everyone what the experience looks like once Beacon Broadband services become available. This way, even those that only want to know when service will be available also have some answers about the service installation process.

Let’s start with what can sometimes feel like the most invasive portion of the Beacon Broadband project, mainline construction. Building a state-of-art fiber to- the-home network on the south coast of Oregon is a massive construction project. Whether using drilling equipment to bore underneath a road or aerial crews to hang fiber between power poles, know that we are doing everything possible to ensure our neighbors within the Coos-Curry Electric service area are not adversely affected by the disruption.

With every construction project, we know there are occasions when something unexpected will occur. Beacon Broadband created a position to help our communities with these one-offs. Our team is equipped and empowered to support all aspects between construction crews and community residents.

Once mainline construction, fiber splicing and testing are complete in your area, Beacon Broadband will launch the service area, making internet service available to your home or business. Once an order has been received—from an initial preregistration or a new customer request—a customer service representative will contact you to schedule a service drop. The service drop will follow your electrical path, buried or aerial, to bring the fiber to a network interface device, or NID, on the side of your home.

Following the service drop, we schedule your in-home installation for the optical network terminal, or ONT, equipment and connect your home Wi-Fi equipment. You’ll have the pleasure of getting your fiber-to-the-home experience installed by one of our thoughtful and caring installers. These individuals will be onsite with you to ensure all your communication needs are satisfied. From getting fiber into your home, helping you customize your managed Wi-Fi and cleaning up before they leave, you can expect quality service from your professional installer.

One of our customers recently stated, “The installer helped me understand my equipment properly. He was kind and used his brain to explain technical things at my level of understanding.”

So now that you have Beacon Broadband fiber in your home or business, what can you expect? The

Wi-Fi GigaSpire Blast—a next-generation smart home router included with your order—will give you fast, reliable home Wi-Fi. Our customers tell us that the biggest difference they’ve experienced is streaming meetings using conference tools like Zoom.

The ultimate Wi-Fi experience gives you less buffering, better quality and more control at your fingertips with the YourBeacon powered by CommandIQ app. With more of our community working from home, using telemedicine resources, or attending school from a computer or tablet, the internet is the backbone to ensuring this experience is adequate.

Beacon Broadband has the tools to support your internet needs. We recently heard from a customer looking to start an online book club who now feels they can do so without service interruption.

Another customer has plans to add a livestream camera on their property. This stream will allow our community to see in real-time what is happening on the ocean just past the Chetco Bar.

Billing questions, general questions or even if an unwanted animal chews through the fiber connection under your floorboards, the Beacon Broadband Customer Care Team is here to answer your questions. Armed with multiple vendor relationships, if we don’t have the answer to a question, we will find it and get back to you as soon as possible.

A customer recently commented, “We love our broadband service. From installation to service, it’s all been amazing.

It all started with Kayla, the first person we spoke to.”

The Beacon Broadband team takes pride in delivering exceptional customer service.

Our vision is to treat our customers as members of the cooperative, and members of the cooperative as our customers.

Customers are more than 96% likely to recommend Beacon Broadband to friends and family, according to a recent survey of about 200 active customers. We are very proud of these results and learned a lot from this survey.

One item we took away is that we are not perfect and strive for continuous improvement. We continue to learn ways to enhance our customers’ overall experience. One key area to improve is providing better education on wireless services. There are many facets to Wi-Fi that can affect speeds, bandwidth, capacity, etc. We owe our customers the best experience they can have. We are working on an article for our website that will give insight into a wireless network and the best ways to maximize the overall experience.

Although we continue to answer questions about timelines the best we can, our goal is to bring the service to your location and ensure it is as close to perfection as possible so we can deliver the ultimate fiber experience. We want to enhance your connected life and bring economic vitality throughout the southern Oregon Coast.