With his 30 years of hands-on experience as a consultant for utility companies, Bob Cooke knows a thing or two about the wires running into his house and, most importantly, who’s putting them there.
“With Comcast, I was constantly getting latency, or drops in service, or just couldn’t access the internet,” said Bob, who mostly works from his home in Brentwood. “Being in business and interfacing with clients meant that was just unacceptable.”
Few challenges in modern life are as frustrating as unreliable internet service.
In a recent industry survey of internet customers, 78% of respondents claimed that reliability was the most important aspect of their experience — well ahead of speed at 64%.
When internet service stalls or stops, users have little option but to wait for their service to restart. Some users may have a “hotspot” feature that enables them to access the internet through a mobile device, but this is a costly option and often comes with surprisingly low data caps.
United Communications expanded its fiber internet service to Bob’s neighborhood in 2019 as part of Project UNITE, the service provider’s initiative to expand broadband service to every rural and under-connected community in Middle Tennessee.
“United was one of the first people to come in to have that option and we were really excited about changing to another internet provider,” explained Bob. “Fiber is faster and so I wanted to go with fiber.”
In addition to fiber’s speed, United maintains a 99.99% uptime as part of its commitment to reliable service — one of the highest rates in its industry.
Today, Bob can attend video conferences on his computer without worrying about slow connections or whether his clients may miss a part of the conversation due to spotty audio or video feeds.
But work calls aren’t the only activity that fiber internet service supports at the Cooke residence.
“When we do stream, I might stream and my wife might stream with my daughter at the same time, and we haven’t seen any issues at all, “said Bob. “I know we have the opportunity to upgrade. I haven’t seen any reason why we’d need to do that. But, even if I did, upgrading with United would still be more reasonable than the slower options offered by their competitors.”
Research suggests that the typical American household has 22 internet-connected devices at home, including computers, phones, tablets, kids’ streaming devices, and a growing array of smart home devices like TVs, alarm systems, and even kitchen appliances.
With United’s fast, reliable fiber internet service, customers can stream 4K movies, binge-watch their favorite shows, and download and upload large files for work or school in mere seconds — all without hidden fees or data caps.
In four years, Bob has called United once for a service-related issue. But the outcome was one he certainly did not expect.
“Unlike other providers where I’d have to wait 45 minutes to talk to a service representative, I called United and was connected to someone right away,” said Bob. “Whenever I interact with anybody at United, it’s personable and it’s professional.”
The United team member remotely reset his modem and service was immediately restored to his house.
“But what really impressed me was that it didn’t stop there,” Bob continued. ”The person on the phone with me saw something that didn’t look quite right, so she had a technician come out to the house.”
After investigating the lines, equipment, and quality of the initial installation, the technician discovered the issue.
“They discovered that, without knowing it, I had damaged the cable going from my wall to my router,” Bob explained. “They replaced the cable when I didn’t even know I was having issues with it — but United did. They came out to proactively take care of it. And, really, who does that sort of thing anymore?”
“Something I know when I get a hold of United is that they’re going to do the job and do it right.”
Learn more about Project UNITE and find out if United Communications’ fiber service is available at your home or business.