Innovative officials have been making the rounds to educate local residents about their new EVO network and told Public Services Commission members Tuesday that their hope is to have all customers make the switch one it gets up and running.
Innovative will do a “soft disconnect” for customers that decide not to switch over, meaning they will only be able to make emergency calls from their Innovative phones, company Chief Executive Officer Shawn O’Donnell said at the PSC meeting on St. Thomas.
The switch is not to force customers onto the Innovative network, O’Donnell added, but rather to transition the company off the old one. Over the last few months, Innovative has seen increases in copper thefts that have begun to affect service and getting onto the new network will protect against all that, he said.
The network includes 246 nodes, or connection points, that are backed up by a propane generator that will keep things running if the power goes out. O’Donnell said in the past, power outages could affect Innovative’s equipment and cause service disruptions that would take time to fix, but because of the age of the hardware, the company would have to go to online for spare parts.
Innovative has also replaced 1,200 poles that O’Donnell said have become a safety hazard and has focused on putting their new lines underground for more reliability.
The network is not quite “fiber to the home,” but it is “fiber to the curb and close to the home,” which O’Donnell said will allow Innovative to offer better cable television service, more than 200 channels and high definition options; long-distance telephone; and faster Internet speeds.
The new network is capable of supporting up to 50 megabits per second of download speed, he said.
O’Donnell also spoke about reductions in Innovative’s service prices, with bundles jumping down from $150 or more to $99, depending on the service.
