It is time for Orcas Power and Light Cooperative’s Rock Island division to set up a 24-hour outage number and repair service for the Internet just as OPALCO does for electrical service.

The Internet is no longer a luxury service.  Rather, it has become essential infrastructure just as electricity is (indeed, one can counter an electric outage by running a generator, but there is no way around an Internet outage). Most businesses are at a serious disadvantage, or even unable to function, if the Internet is down.

Residents cannot make or cancel ferry reservations.  Tourists cannot reach lodging establishments.  School programs, especially the STEM programs into which our school is pouring so much money, are seriously disrupted.  Those who bank online cannot pay bills (perhaps incurring as a result additional interest or fees) or access their accounts.  Retirees who use the Internet for stock and bond trading may lose considerable amounts of money if they cannot respond timely to market changes.  And the impacts of an outage go far beyond these few examples.

At present, if the Internet goes down in the evening, users cannot even make OPALCO/Rock Island aware of the outage until 9  a.m. the next morning.

More than 12 hours will have passed during which the problem could have been worked on, diagnosed, and perhaps repaired in time for the next business day.  If the Internet goes out on on a Friday evening, the entire weekend may pass without users even being able to report the outage and have OPALCO/Rock Island technicians start to diagnose the problem and restore the service.

Customers are simply left in limbo.

This is unacceptable.   OPALCO/Rock Island must promptly set up the same level of outage notification, service response, and customer information for Internet service as they have for electrical service.   They must recognize that both are essential services in these modern times and give them both the highest level of 24-hour care and service.

Christopher  Hodgkin

Friday Harbor