Absent locators or poor locating impacts customers and slows fiber internet construction projects

There is a very large problem that should not be a problem, and we want you to know about it.

Locators for some current communication providers aren’t showing up to locate underground utilities within 48 hours in areas where we are building fiber, as required by law. Or, if they do show up, they are inaccurately marking their facilities. When this happens the real consequences of the problem start. Despite our efforts to avoid their unmarked facilities, often cables are cut and service disruptions look like they are our fault, when they are not.

You can imagine the struggle the customer then faces trying to get the company, who didn’t locate the facilities properly, to then come out and fix them after a cut. Poor service and poor facilities from existing providers are the reasons we are building fiber to these customers in the first place.

Unfortunately beyond the impact to customers, this issue is slowing down our fiber construction projects; the intent of each is to bring reliable fiber internet to customers who are underserved. We have tried all avenues to try to improve the situation including informing appropriate groups who oversee this type of work. To date, nothing has helped.

Customers are understandably upset when their service is disrupted. Most often these customer want our fiber Internet service and we want to serve them when the network is ready. A situation like this makes it hard to leave a proper impression. We wish we could repair the cut line, even though it was not our fault, but by law we cannot repair another company’s facilities without permission.

Every company with underground networks has to mark their facilities within 48 hours if someone is going to dig nearby. At Evertek, there are times our staff does hundreds of locates per month; we understand the process and that is why this is so frustrating.

We wanted all to have a better understanding of this current problem and who is causing it.