Andrew Leeper’s hobby saves lives. For years, he’s been helping his friends run Nashville Severe Weather. You may know it better as @Nashville Severe Weather. The team provides severe weather news and updates for Davidson and Williamson Counties year-round through social media and their YouTube channel. They use high-quality radar software to track storms, are dialed into the National Weather Service’s internal chat to get the latest information, and even work with local meteorologists to ensure the latest updates are distributed to the public as quickly as possible. The team tweets out forecasts, watches, warnings, ETAs, and commentary about hail, severe wind, lightning, tornadoes, snow, and other severe weather that impacts hundreds of thousands of Middle Tennesseans.
“Whenever there’s a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning in our area, we’ll be on YouTube live-streaming video, talking about it, and providing that service to the public, to our followers. So it’s very important that we have a good internet connection that’s fast and reliable. I’ve found that even in the worst of storms and the times when we needed it most, our internet was there. And that’s a big deal! If we don’t have that, then we really don’t have what we need in order to complete our mission.”
About one month ago, a severe and damaging wind storm hit both Davidson and Williamson Counties. Andrew and the team were live-streaming on YouTube, pinpointing where the strongest winds were. In the middle of the live cast, his power went out. He quickly got the backup generator going and, to his surprise, realized he still had internet access.
“Our power was out for several hours, but the internet kept working great!”
“Even though our power was out, we were able to continue streaming to many thousands of customers in our area about damaging winds that could potentially be very dangerous. Our power was out for several hours, but the internet kept working great! That was a big testament to how reliable United’s service is.”
Andrew has been a United Communications customer for the last 15 years. Back then, United Communications serviced Andrew’s landline phone. Today, Andrew uses United Communications’ fiber internet service for everything from streaming movies and TV to operating Nashville Severe Weather’s pages and live feeds.
“We’ve never been left in the dark. We’ve never wondered when something is going to be fixed. It’s always very good communication.”
“From the very beginning, I could tell that United Communications was a local company. When I called with questions or for help, I was able to get through to a real person right away. They’ve always been able to help and to say either, ‘Here’s the issue, and we expect it to be fixed soon,’ or they’ll come and check it out at the house. That’s always been the case. We’ve never been left in the dark. We’ve never wondered when something is going to be fixed. It’s always very good communication.”
Andrew says people ask what resources he has to help operate the Nashville Severe Weather channels, often assuming he has some kind of “special internet connection” that they don’t know about. But he assures them every time: it’s just United Communications’ reliable service.
“People understand that the customer service is great; they understand that the price is good, and they understand that it’s really fast.”
“This isn’t just my opinion, this is the opinion of lots of people on other forums and social media. When somebody asks who they should get for their internet provider, hands down it’s almost always United. It’s because people understand that the customer service is great; they understand that the price is good, and they understand that it’s really fast. In this age, when you have kids and they’re all doing stuff on the internet, it just makes sense to get a good reliable fast internet connection, and United has been able to provide that for us over and over again.”
If you are a home or business owner in Middle Tennessee, we’d love to connect with you! To see if fiber is available in your area, please contact United Communications or visit our website for more information.