Our current Internet service provided by CenturyLink does not even average half of the speed stated in the plan we are paying for with them, either uploading or downloading. Neither they nor any other company offers a high(er) speed broadband service for us, or have indicated any plans to do so.

If you are frustrated with not being able to stream an uninterrupted Netflix movie, send or receive pictures via email without your service grinding to a halt, or even watch a YouTube or other video about a favorite sports, political, or other subject without it stopping and starting innumerable times, then you should support the OPALCO initiative now.

For the same price we are currently paying, we can receive from OPALCO at least 10 times the speed we are supposed to receive from CenturyLink, (about 20 times the speed we actually currently receive from CenturyLink), in addition to the other benefits in the OPALCO Broadband Initiative.

As a retired employee of a major Telecom company, I can assure you that there is little if any incentive for a major player to upgrade our services, as we are just not a significant enough customer base. The only way any other company will be interested in improving our broadband service is if they can make a profit off of us, which would require a very, very significant increase in the cost of that service to us for the infrastructure improvements they would be required to make.

The significant improvement in service via the OPALCO Broadband Initiative (10 to 20 times the speed) can come at a cost which is little if any more costly than what we are currently paying for the very poor service from CenturyLink.

So if you are at all interested in receiving in the foreseeable future much better Internet service at about the same cost you are paying now for very poor service, please go to the OPALCO website at https://www.opalco.com/ and click the SIGN UP NOW button to show your support.

Terry O’Sullivan

Orcas Island