Calls Not Coming Through? You Are Being Discriminated Against By Big National Carriers.

January 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Have you recently experienced any of the following:

1. Someone from a big city or out-of-state tells you they tried to call you but the call didn’t get through, or the call rang on their end but your phone did not ring?
2. A call came through to you but the quality was poor?
3. A call came through but the caller ID was incorrect?

Direct Communications strives to provide excellent service at all times, and we only install absolutely the most modern, state-of-the-art, telephone switching equipment available anywhere in the world. However, people who live in rural areas all around the country are reporting that calls to them are not getting through, or they are getting calls with poor quality. For example, when family from out of state tries to call you, they might be telling you they can’t get through to you or that their phone is giving them an error message.

The growing problem, as explained by the Foundation for Rural Service, lies “with the carrier used by the customer who makes the call, not your rural local telecommunications provider. The problem can only be resolved by the carrier used by the customer who makes the call. This nationwide epidemic is negatively affecting local businesses, public safety, and our relationship with our customers. Rural carriers have complained to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and state agencies. The FCC has created a task force to investigate and address the issue and rural telco advocates are encouraging swift and severe action against all of the providers at the center of the problem.”
-FRS, Calls Not Getting Through?

The FCC has recognized this problem and clearly identified large national carriers who are using below-standard, cheap long distance companies to save money, who don’t want to pay the costs to connect calls to rural areas, simply because it costs more money to connect  the call to remote areas. So, instead of terminating the call, they just drop it. Basically, they are discriminating against rural areas. The FCC put it very diplomatically when they recently stated on their website:
“The issue is complicated, but in a nutshell, the problem appears to be occurring in rural areas where long distance carriers normally pay higher-than-average charges to the local telephone company to complete calls.  These charges are part of the decades-old system of “access” charges that help pay for the cost of rural networks.  To minimize these charges, some long-distance carriers use third-party “least-cost routers,” which attempt to connect calls to their destination at the lowest cost possible. Sometimes, however, the calls appear not to be connecting at all.”
See http://www.fcc.gov/blog/new-year-solutions-rural-call-completion-problems

On Feb 6, 2012, the FCC released a new ruling to address this problem, stating that:

“Carriers that deliberately fail to complete calls to rural areas could face cease and desist orders, forfeiture, license revocations and fines of up to $1.5 million.”  The ruling is an important victory for rural telcos, who have seen a sharp increase in complaints from customers saying callers have not been able to reach them.

“These problems can have dire consequences,” the FCC wrote in the ruling. “Small businesses can lose customers who get frustrated when their calls don’t go through. Urgent long distance calls from friends of family can be missed. Schools may be unable to reach parents with critical alerts, including school closings due to extreme weather. And those in need of help may be unable to reach public safety officials.”

The FCC’s nine-page ruling references a variety of ways that failure to complete calls to another carrier violates existing statutes. The commission also said originating carriers could be liable for actions taken by least cost routers – other carriers who terminate calls for them.

“If carriers continue to hand off calls to agents, intermediate providers or others that a carrier knows are not completing a reasonable percentage of calls, or are otherwise restricting traffic, that is an unjust or unreasonable practice prohibited by section 201 of the [Telecommunications] Act,” the FCC said.

What can you do about it?
We as a rural telecom industry will continue to press the FCC to act against the large nationwide providers involved in these issues. You can help too by doing the following:

  1. Ask for the name of the long-distance carrier used by the person trying to reach you. Call us, your local provider, and give us details so that we can report the offending long distance companies. Include the name of the carrier used by the caller so that we can contact the carrier on your behalf to try and resolve the issue.
  2. Go to www.fcc.gov/complaints to file an informal wired telephone service complaint with the FCC against the carrier used by the person trying to call you (not your local service provider), and encourage the caller to do the same.
  3. Contact your Congressman and tell them to stop the discrimination against rural areas by the big carriers.
  4. Tell the person trying to reach you to report the problem to their long distance carrier.

Filed under Industry Updates Tagged with ,

What We Did in 2011

January 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

2011- Although this year was one of increased uncertainty for the rural telecommunications industry, with the FCC and federal administration threatening to cut major funding sources for rural areas under the guise of the national broadband plan, Direct Communications as a company made some important strides forward to strengthen our company, get to know our customers better, improve our products and offerings, focus on our core business, improve our competitive position in the markets we serve, and acquire new customers and revenue sources.

Overall, 2011 was a very good year. Our employees and customers should feel satisfied that we made a real difference to our communities, and improved the quality of life in both Idaho and Utah during 2011. That is what makes even us in marketing sleep well at night. We spent the year expanding our fiber network to the vital institutions that serve your rural areas, like schools, hospitals, city, county and government buildings, doctors offices, libraries, small and large businesses, and of course, homes.

We were excited to upgrade to a new Metaswitch IP switch in our Idaho exchanges at the beginning of 2011. Direct Communications was the first telephone company in Idaho to implement a digital switch several years ago, and this new central switch replacement was another pioneering step for rural telecommunications in Idaho. The old digital switch was about the size of an average living room. The new switch is about the size of a small refrigerator. A major difference between the new one and the old switch, besides the size, is that this new switch was developed to take advantage of all the newest computer and internet advancements, especially in its ability to use IP protocol, to talk to modern electronic devices, like IP phones, computers, routers etc., and work on a fiber-optic network.

In Eagle Mountain, the year began with some great publicity as Direct Communications was awarded the 2010 Best Business of the Year by the Lehi Area Chamber of Commerce. http://blog.directcom.com/2011/01/19/direct-communications-awarded-2010-best-business-of-the-year/

After months of work, Direct Communications was able to open the doors to their new building on Campus Drive in Eagle Mountain in February, 2011.  Our grand opening was held in June, along with the ribbon cutting of the Eagle Mountain City business incubator program. The building has 8 “pods”, or office spaces, approximately 2500 square feet each.  Direct Communications houses four of the pods, Beyond Limits Physical Therapy occupies one pod, and the Eagle Mountain City incubator program has the remaining three pods.  After working in two separate areas for several years, Direct Communications was excited to have all of their employees at the same location. This new building signified an important coming-of-age for DCCV, which began as a start-up in the back of the fire station in 2006, and employees who remember all sharing a single bathroom and welcoming potential customers into the reception desk/storage area/stairwell, now had their own offices with hardwood trim—an unimaginable prospect 5 years ago. For more about the building see http://blog.directcom.com/2011/10/06/opening-ceremony-ribbon-cutting-for-new-direct-communications-building-in-eagle-mountain/

We began the year with a couple of new marketing initiatives to launch our new brand position and tagline of “faster streaming broadband” and started by giving away a year-long subscription to Netflix streaming to all new customers in January.  In February we gave away a Roku streaming media player to all new customers. In June, to coincide with Pony Express Days, we gave away a Wii to new customers, which enjoyed about the same success as the Xbox promotion the previous year. All of these device promotions were designed to migrate customers towards using streaming video as their primary entertainment source, because that not only increases the value of our service from a commodity to a premium product, but also, once they become dependent on their internet for video entertainment purposes, they are less likely to leave us for a wireless competitor. We conducted a couple of customer survey during the year, and found that 66% of our customers said they now use online streaming of video as their primary entertainment source.

Also during June, we announced new broadband speeds for all customers, with our basic speed starting at 8Mb, and our fastest speed on offer at 50Mb. This was designed around our main wireless competitors offerings, which had 7Mb as their top speed. Of course, by the end of the year they had also reacted and changed their packages to advertise 10Mb and 15Mb speeds.

After Pony Express Days we cut back on advertising until December, when we rolled out a Kindle Fire as a Christmas promotion, which emphasized making the internet fun—since the new Kindle could stream video, download apps, and play games. The Kindle promotion ended up being our most successful marketing campaign of 2011.

However, 2011 was an interesting year for marketing with the maturing of social media, which for the first time played an important part of our integrated marketing, and opened up a new target media market for us, since we could now target internet customers living only in Eagle Mountain and we began spending a significant portion of our advertising budget on facebook ads.

We began the year by splitting our facebook page into two separate pages for Idaho and Utah, to make it more relevant to each market. Acquiring fans was a slow process at the beginning, until we learned the only sure way to entice more customers to our page was with online promotions for facebook fans.  By the end of the year we had over 500 customers on our Eagle Mountain facebook page. See  http://blog.directcom.com/2011/06/14/first-winner-of-directcom-monthly-facebook-fan-contest/

Navigating social media has been a learning experience for us, and we have had to learn to take the good with the bad, as dissatisfied customers also like to use our page as a soapbox, but overall it has been a positive experience for both the company and our customers, and we actually implemented a lot of good suggestions made by customers on our page through our interactions this year.

We presented on the subject of social media at the annual Utah Rural Telephone Association meeting in St George.

Direct Communications Cedar Valley’s own Brenda Caldwell was named Utah Valley’s Raddest Receptionist by Utah Valley BusinessQ Magazine, and Brenda was featured in the Fall 2011 issue. http://blog.directcom.com/2011/09/29/directcoms-brenda-caldwell-named-utah-valleys-raddest-receptionist/

Probably the most significant change during 2011 was the sale of our wireless internet business to Digis, after being one of the first companies in southeast Idaho to offer wireless internet over 10 years ago. We made this decision primarily so that we could focus on our core business of growing our fiber optic network in Idaho and developing our wired internet products, including our cable and DSL technologies. The money from the sale would be reinvested into developing the products where we have a real competitive advantage. Read more about this move at: http://blog.directcom.com/2011/10/13/sale-of-wireless-internet-assets-to-digis/

Immediately after the sale of our wireless business, we launched the ESPN3 broadband channel for our high-speed customers in Idaho. 2011 turned out to be a great year to offer ESPN3, because BYU football, which many of our customers follow, went independent largely on an ESPN broadcasting contract, and so most of their games were streamed online on ESPN3 this year.

We were also kept very busy working with the three major national mobile phone providers to construct and deliver fiber optic service to most of the cell phone towers in the area, so that they could offer more data to their customers, and we also now wholesale broadband service to most of our competitors in the area. Without an extensive fiber optic network, our rural economy in Idaho would not be able to function in this information age. As our tagline claims, we are the future of broadband technology in the rural areas we serve.

Filed under Community Involvement, Industry Updates Tagged with , , , ,

KUTV-2 Cable Re-transmission Negotiations

December 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The owner of KUTV-2 (Utah), Sinclair Broadcast Group, is demanding a massive fee increase per customer, for continued carriage of  KUTV-2 on our cable line-up this year.  (Remember, this is a station they offer absolutely free to millions of people over the air, but they want to make cable customers pay to receive.) A couple of years ago we agreed to pay their new fee, and you saw those costs added as a local network re-transmission fee. This time, they have demanded too much. The station’s proposed agreement would increase the cost to provide the signal to you by more than 400% over the next three-years.  Although we have attempted to negotiate in good faith with SBG, the only response we have received is pay more, or don’t carry the signal.

Unfortunately, we have no leverage in these negotiations under current federal laws and regulations.  We do, however, strongly believe that our cable customers should not be extorted by multibillion dollar companies, who then gloat to their investors about the huge increases in revenue they are receiving as a result of their ability to take money straight from your pockets in the form of higher cable bills.

If we don’t agree to the massive rate increase demanded, SBG insists that we cease offering KUTV-2 as of January 1, 2012.  We have decided you should not pay higher cable rates owing to broadcaster extortion, even if it results in a signal blackout.  We are truly sorry for this inconvenience.  We would like to continue carriage of KUTV-2, but we cannot because of the negotiations breakdown.

Our situation is not unique. Identical situations have arisen with cable operators and station owner groups in other markets across the country. Cable operators are finally taking a stand, working to prevent your cable bills from rising dramatically, giving us hope that we can continue to deliver quality programming and broadband services to you, our valued customers.

We deeply and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience an interruption in carriage will cause. We take great pride in serving our cable communities and hope to solve this issue as soon as possible.

If you would like to help us win our struggle with SBG so we can once again broadcast KUTV-UT, please call the station at 801.839.1154 and tell them you won’t accept a 400% increase in cost to view KUTV-UT.  Also, please visit our website to learn about this issue and find out how to contact your representatives in Congress to ask that they fix this broken marketplace so cable customers across the country don’t have to accept extortion from broadcasters.

Sincerely,

Direct Communications/ICS Management

Filed under Industry Updates, Press Releases, Public Notice

NETWORK NEUTRALITY NETWORK MANAGEMENT POLICY

November 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

NETWORK NEUTRALITY
NETWORK MANAGEMENT POLICY

In this document, the terms “you” and “your” refer to customers of Direct Communications’ Internet Access Service. The terms “we” and “our” refer to Direct Communications (hereafter DC) and Direct Communications’ Internet Access Service.

 

Definitions

Service – Internet access purchased from DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS. This includes connectivity from your equipment at your premises to the Internet equipment at DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s office, connection of DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s equipment to the Internet, and DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s equipment that is used to route and manage your traffic to and from the Internet and to provide you with services such as e-mail, web surfing, file transfer, Internet video, and others

Bandwidth – The amount of data per second. This may be thought of as the “pipe” that carries Internet traffic.

Bandwidth capacity is the amount of bandwidth that we or another network provider makes available for your use, such as the amount of data that can be sent over a wire or fiber optic system.

Bandwidth demand is the amount of bandwidth that a customer wants to use.

Congestion – A situation where the total bandwidth demand (in bits of information per second) on a component of the Internet, including on any part of our network, exceeds the bandwidth capacity of that component to such an extent that traffic flow and service experiences degradation. Congestion is usually of a transitory nature, however, in some cases, such as an extremely popular website, it may last for a significant period.

Degradation of Service – Less than optimal performance of Internet services. This may appear to you as slow response on web sites and e-mail or distorted or frozen video.

Nominal Bandwidth – The bandwidth of the service package you purchase. This is your maximum allowed bandwidth.

 

Terms of Service and Network Management Practices

The bandwidth you purchase (your service package or nominal bandwidth) is the MAXIMUM bandwidth available to you. It is not a guaranteed bandwidth. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS will make its best effort to transmit your data in a timely fashion, however, DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS does not guarantee you that you will be able to use your entire nominal bandwidth at any given time. This is referred to as “best effort” service.

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS strives to make your total nominal bandwidth available for you to use within our network. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS cannot control bandwidth available, congestion, or service quality on those parts of the Internet beyond our network.

When other customers use our network, you may not be able to use your maximum nominal bandwidth because all customers share total bandwidth capacity at some points on our network and on the Internet. If the bandwidth demand of all customers at that network location exceeds the bandwidth capacity provided, you may not be able to use your entire nominal bandwidth. All services are “shared services” used by many customers.

We size our Internet services by the bandwidth of all our customers, including your service, based on best-of-breed engineering practices. Service is provided equally to all customers, and every customer’s data has an equal chance to be served.

On a downstream basis (Internet to customer), service is provided equally to all customers, Internet services, protocols, and sources or destinations on the Internet such as websites, e-mail servers, etc.

Due to limited bandwidth capacity on an upstream basis (customer to Internet), service is provided equally to all customers, protocols, and sources or destinations on the Internet such as websites, e-mail servers, etc. except that service types are prioritized to provide the best service possible to all customers. We prioritize services with streaming video being the highest priority, then web browsing, then all other services. Service is not prioritized by customer or source or destination on the Internet. No services, protocols, or legal sources and destinations on the Internet are blocked under any circumstances. Any effects on service may only be noticeable in times of significant congestion.

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS may block any service, protocol, source, or destination that DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS determines to be illegal or a threat to life, property, or national security, or if ordered to block or otherwise modify your data by law enforcement agencies.

At this time, DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS does not implement network management techniques when congestion occurs, however, in times of congestion on DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s network, DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS may, at its sole discretion, implement reasonable network management techniques to protect the services of all of DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s customers so that each customer has adequate service quality. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS will not implement network management if degradation of service is caused by congestion on portions of the Internet outside of DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s network. DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS will notify our customers on this website of changes to our network management policy.

 

Devices & Software that may be Attached to DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s Internet Access Service

There are no restrictions on types of devices you may connect to DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s network other than that they must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for use in the US telecommunications network.  You may not connect any equipment to DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s network that is not approved by the FCC.  Most commercially available equipment such as modems, routers, and PCs are approved.  All equipment approved by the FCC will have a label stating that it is approved and what the type of the approval is.  This information is also found in the user’s manual or printed instructions that are provided with the equipment and may be found online at the manufacturer’s website.  You should read this label whenever you buy any equipment you wish to connect to DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s network.  If you have questions about any particular equipment, please call us at 208 548 2345.

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s Internet access service is designed to function with accepted industry standard interface software such as provided by Microsoft, Apple, and others.  If you use a type of software not widely used in the worldwide Internet, you may experience some problems with compatibility between your software and DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s Internet access service.  If you have any questions, please call us on 208 548 2345, and we will try to help you resolve this problem.  It is the customer’s responsibility to assure that their software and operating interfaces conform to industry accepted specifications.

 

Network Security

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS uses the latest industry-best-practices to maintain integrity and security of its network. This may include security protections that interfere with some types of customer traffic. If you believe your services are being disrupted by our security systems, please contact us on 208 548 2345.

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS provides a level of protection for your computers from spam, viruses, and other malicious or unwanted items.  While DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS strives to provide the best protection possible for your computer, we make no guarantees that we can prevent all malicious or unwanted items from accessing your computer.  It is the customer’s responsibility to protect their computers and other devices from unwanted or harmful items.  It is very strongly recommended that you provide your own virus and malware protection, spam filtering, and firewall software, solutions are available on the DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS website.

There are additional considerations regarding Internet security related to DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s Internet access service.  Call our office at 208 548 2345 for a copy of our Acceptable Use Policy.

 

Services DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS Offers

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS offers the following Internet access services. Pricing may be found at http://www.directcom.com. The bandwidths listed are the maximum bandwidth of the service. You will not be provided additional bandwidth above what you purchased, even for short periods of time. You are not permitted to “burst” traffic above your purchased bandwidth.

DSL/Broadband

Maximum Downstream Bandwidth Maximum Upstream Bandwidth
1.5Mb 512Kb
6 Mb 512Kb
12 Mb 1 Mb
20Mb 5 Mb

*Not all services available in all locations.

 

Use of DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s Services for Real-Time Applications such as Streaming Video

The Best Effort services above may be suitable for real-time applications if the customer has purchased adequate bandwidth for that service. Disruption during times of congestion, if any, which you experience will be minimized if you purchase adequate bandwidth for the services you wish to use. However, since there are occasionally conditions of extreme congestion at various points in the Internet, including DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS’s network, DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS does not guarantee that your service will never be degraded.

Note that bandwidth requirements will differ by real-time application. For example, video such as that offered by various services such as YouTube may require somewhat less total bandwidth than entertainment quality streaming video. Bandwidth requirements may also differ among providers.

 

Privacy of Customer Information

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS inspects packets of data you send or receive over our network to allow us to route and, where applicable, prioritize data. We inspect only the packet headers which tell us where to send your data and the type of data it is, i.e.: web surf, video, file transfer, etc.

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS does not examine the content of your data, i.e.: the data which you send or receive, such as the messages from and to e-mail addresses of your e-mail, which web sites you visit, the sources of your video, or the contents of files you send or receive.

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS does not store your data, or sell or reveal it to any third parties.

DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS may provide any of your data, both on an active, real time basis and stored data such as your billing records, to law enforcement under appropriate legal orders if law enforcement requests your information in matters dealing with illegal acts or a threat to life, property, or national security.

 

Contact Us

If you have questions or comments regarding our network management policies or practices, please contact us at 208 548 2345 or support@directcom.com.

 

Filed under Public Notice

Direct Communications Sponsors Young Cyclist Trevor Mingo

November 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Trevor Mingo

Direct Communications sponsored young cyclist, and Direct Communications customer, Trevor Mingo, in this year’s Lotoja Classic, which is the longest one-day bicycle race in the country, at 206 miles. This race runs through Bear Lake County, although it starts in Logan, Utah and ends in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Direct Communications support of this event goes back several years as the broadband company has provided free internet service at several stations along the route.

Trevor won the event for his age group in 2010. He commented on this year’s race:

“Lotoja is by far the most difficult athletic event I’ve done. But it is also the most rewarding event I’ve ever done. I’ve had a lot of encouragement from my family, especially my Dad. It is pretty awesome to cross the finish line with him and my cousin Derek. It requires a lot of hours training.

My best time was 2010 of 10.5 hours, when I finished 1st in my division. I got 2nd in 2009. This year I finished 7th. I would have done a lot better, except I had to stop to buy a new rear tire, and lost some serious race time.

Thank you Direct Communications for your support!”

Trevor and Darwin Mingo sporting Direct Communications logos

According to the official event website, www.lotojaclassic.com, “Lotoja is a European-style road classic that is unparalleled in distance and beauty. At 206 miles, LOTOJA is the longest one-day USCF-sanctioned bicycle race in the country. LOTOJA participants come from all over the U.S. to test their physical and mental stamina on the course that climbs and descends three mountain passes in the first 110 miles. The race starts in Logan, Utah and finishes in the shadows of the Teton Mountain Range at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Lotoja will celebrate its 30th year in 2012. Lotoja raises funds for charity like Huntsman Cancer Foundation, ASD Connections (Autism Spectrum Disorder Connections), Teamgive (support of those suffering neurlogical disease), NAC (National Ability Center) and Common Ground (Outdoor adventures for youth and adults with disabilities).

Derek, Trevor and Darwin

Filed under Community Involvement Tagged with

ESPN3 November Programming Highlights

November 10, 2011 by 1 Comment

ESPN3 is your new home for College Basketball

ESPN3 is the online home for sports fan to watch LIVE sporting events through a simple to use, interactive online video player. ESPN3 offers a wide array of event programming options, allowing your customers to choose live events or recently completed games. Most events available on ESPN3 will be original and/or exclusive to the service, while others will be broadband-enhanced versions of games from one of ESPN’s television platforms. ESPN3 is the online destination for sports fans to watch their favorite teams wherever they are.

430+ Events in November 2011

Football

115+ live College Football games, including 10 exclusive games

9 exclusive CFL games including the Grey Cup

Basketball

Start of College Basketball with 135+ men’s and women’s games, including 48 exclusive games

Start of the NBA season with 13 games

10 exclusive EuroLeague games

Soccer
65+ soccer matches from USA soccer, EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, MLS and college soccer, including 61 exclusive matches

Tennis

Nearly 150 hours of ATP tennis

Additional Events

World Series of Poker Final Table live
Breeder’s Cup
Exclusive NHRA
College Volleyball & Soccer
Venezuelan Baseball
Veteran’s Day Boxing
REMAX World Long Drive Championship
Argentine Polo
French Top 14 Rugby

Filed under Product News Tagged with

Directcom Customers in Idaho now have Access to ESPN3.com.

November 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment

ESPN3.com. Your Favorite Sports. Live. Online.

Direct Communications is pleased to announce that our broadband customers in Idaho on our DSL, Fiber Optic and Cable Internet Networks now have access to ESPN3.com.

ESPN3.com Means More College Basketball

Direct Communications is the only Internet Provider in Southeast Idaho that gives you access to this fantastic online sports network. Plus, if you are a Direct Communications Broadband customer, ESPN3.com is now available on Xbox LIVE!

ESPN3.com is a broadband network for live sports programming that harnesses the quality that ESPN has built through its TV networks. ESPN3.com delivers more than 3,500 live online events a year from your favorite sports through a rich, interactive, and easy-to-use experience. Features of the website include the ability to watch multiple games simultaneously, real-time stats and scoreboards, live chat for interacting with friends and other fans, and much more!

Direct Communications means faster streaming broadband. Our fiber optic network allows you to enjoy speeds up to 20Mb, so you can watch streaming video the way it was meant to be viewed. No throttling and no monthly usage caps means you can enjoy unlimited, high-quality, online viewing.

To watch ESPN3 go to our homepage at directcom.com and click on the ESPN3 logo.

New features and functionality updates at launch:

New Viewing Modes – Multiple options to watch live events, including picture-in-picture and split screens;

New Scoreboard Module – Up-to-the-minute scores from hundreds of sports leagues from around the world;

Stats – In-depth event stats that allow fans to track the event they’re watching;

Chat – Interact with other fans watching the game;

Enhanced Schedule – Users will be able to find a specific event via improved navigation;

Social Networking Tools –Update your Facebook and Twitter status.

A Key Plays feature where users will be able to jump to key scoring plays and pivotal moments at any time during the game.

Network Description:
Watch more than 3,500 live sports events a year including college basketball, college football, MLB, NBA, PGA and tennis championships

  • Customize your viewing experience with a selection of features
  • Select from a menu of live or recently completed games and events
  • Watch up to 4 LIVE games all at the same time with a variety of viewing modes
  • Ability to CHAT LIVE with your friend in the Chat room
  • Live scores and an analysis
  • With your High Speed Internet connection, log onto ESPN3.com away from home with Remote Access

ESPN3.com Programming:

• Tennis

- Coverage of all 4 Grand Slam events (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open)

- Over 1600 live hours of Grand Slam tennis including simultaneous streams of outer-court coverage

Golf

- The Masters: First and Second Round coverage in addition to the Par 3 Contest

- US Open: First and Second Rounds in addition to specific Par 3 hole coverage

- Open Championship: All 4 Rounds in addition to specific Par 3 hole coverage

CWS

- Up to 37 games of the NCAA Baseball Championship including all games from the College World Series in Omaha.

• MLB

- 76 total games (Monday/Wednesday/Sunday) in addition to the Home Run Derby, All-Star Celebrity Softball game, MLB Futures All-Star game & World Series Championship Parade

• NBA Playoffs

- Up to 27 NBA Playoff games including First Round & Conference Semifinal action as well as all games from the Conference Finals (each year rotates between Eastern & Western Conference Finals)

• Soccer

- Over 650 soccer games per year

- Coverage from major leagues/tournaments including the FIFA tournaments, US Soccer, Italian Serie A, Portuguese Liga, Italian Cup, German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, Dutch League, German Cup, MLS and NCAA

• College Basketball

- Over 1000 men’s and women’s basketball games per year including over 170 Championship Week games

- Approx 10-15 exclusive games per year

- Coverage of all major conferences

• College Football

- Over 350 games per year including over 20 Bowl games

- 40 exclusive games this season

- Coverage from all BCS conferences

Please note:

Offer available to broadband customers in Direct Communications’ phone exchange and cable franchise areas in Idaho only. Broadband Internet required. Listed speeds are approximate and may vary depending on line conditions. You will be  authorized to  receive “up to” listed download and upload speeds. You must have fiber-to-the-home to receive 20Mb speeds. If you are on copper, 12Mb is the current top speed.

Direct Communications can take any action to protect our network, our rights and interests. We reserve the right to cancel or change service plan offerings at anytime without notification to subscribers. HD video quality where available from media content provider and dependent on line conditions and speed.

ESPN3.com interface may differ from image shown. All online media content sold separately. See http://espn.go.com/espn3/index# for for details about ESPN3.com service and Terms of Use. Broadband internet required. Directcom is not responsible for support or troubleshooting of ESPN3.com.  All warranties and technical support are through ESPN. May require extra hardware to install. You will need an Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription to access ESPN3 through Xbox live.

Filed under Press Releases, Product News Tagged with ,

Sale of Wireless Internet Assets to Digis

October 13, 2011 by 1 Comment

Ten years ago, Direct Communications became one of the first companies in southeast Idaho to offer wireless internet. Since then, both our business and the broadband industry as a whole have changed dramatically.  We have decided that in order to move our business forward more effectively, we will be selling our wireless internet assets in Idaho to our friends at Digis, who specialize purely in wireless internet, so that we can focus on our core business of growing our fiber optic network in Idaho and developing our wired internet products, including our cable and DSL technologies. Basically, we want to focus on the things that we do best, and on the products where we have a real competitive advantage.

Please note that this sale does not include any cable, DSL, fiber, mobile wireless (cell phone), or Syringa Wireless assets, or our wireless customers on Digital Bridge (DBC) networks. So, to most of our customers, while this sale will not affect your wired internet service, we wanted to explain why this is good for your future with Direct Communications.

Some of our customers have expressed concerns such as: Why are you selling the wireless business? What is the future of Direct Communications?

Jeremy Smith, General Manger of Direct Communications in Idaho, sent out the following memo regarding these concerns:

“I wanted to let everyone know about the sale of our fixed wireless assets (not cell phone).  A few months back, we were approached by a company (Digis) to buy our wireless customers.  We did not go out and look for a buyer.  We did evaluate their offer and believe it to be best to sell this particular asset.  The proceeds of the sale will go toward growing the company’s other networks.

It always makes employees and customers nervous when things happen such as this.  So, I believe it important to explain things to all of you. I just want to emphasize, the sale was not essential from a financial point of view, but we figured it to be the best thing at this time as we look towards the future direction of the broadband industry.

In the future, people will probably have two internet connections:
1. a capped mobile data solution, and
2. an uncapped and reliable fixed service for streaming data, video, and future services.  We will be the solution for a fixed home and business internet service.  We should be able to accomplish this with our cable, fiber, and DSL networks. Though fixed wireless is considered a broadband service, I believe the bandwidth to be too limited for the amount of bandwidth needed in the short future (both in quantity and quality).

We have some exciting, positive times ahead.  Let’s make our wired networks the best in Idaho!”

Please understand, we are doing this to strengthen our business, and move in the direction we see the future of broadband service going. Fiber Optics is the future of the internet, the future of our company, and the future of rural broadband. Someday, we will have fiber optic cable to every home in our phone exchange areas, and hopefully to as many homes as possible in our cable areas.

We have spent the past couple of years building fiber to the vital institutions that serve your rural areas, like city, county and government buildings, schools, hospitals, doctors offices, libraries, small and large businesses, and many homes. We have also been delivering fiber service to the cell phone towers in the area, and even to most of our competitors in the area. Without an extensive fiber optic network, our rural economy in Idaho would not be able to function in this information age, so we are making a huge bet on fiber for all of us.

What will we do with the proceeds of this sale?

We will invest the proceeds back into the communities we serve—into building our fiber network in rural Idaho, and also delivering faster speeds on our other wired internet products, like cable and DSL.

Witness the drama unfold each week as the Nation’s top teams and biggest rivals battle on ESPN3. WatchESPN. College Football on ESPN. All Season Long.

Witness the drama unfold each week as the Nation’s top teams and biggest rivals battle on ESPN3 and WatchESPN. College Football on ESPN. All Season Long.

One immediate benefit cable and DSL customers will see is we will soon be offering ESPN3, a fantastic new high-definition sports channel available only online, to our broadband customers for FREE. Did you know ESPN3 will present 70 exclusive online College Football games this season, in addition to the hundreds they simulcast both online and on cable. This October alone, over 123 college football games will air on ESPN3.com. Enhanced viewing options makes ESPN3.com the best way to tune in. Watch up to 4 of your favorite games at once. If you are a sports fan, you will love this fantastic resource we will soon provide free to our customers. http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/source/espn3/
We will try encourage our customers to use the internet more for your video entertainment needs, a technology that is really taking off right now as more people subscribe to online services like Netflix and Hulu. You will begin to see new branding based around the tagline we already use in our Utah exchange ,where most of our customers already have fiber to the home: Faster. Streaming. Broadband.

As a marketing person, I am pleased that our company will be more focused on a single product line. A smart marketer once said: “Do one thing great. Eliminate the irrelevant.” Until fairly recently, we were providing various services including WiMax, Wireless, Cable etc, to over 90 towns in southeast Idaho, and each town’s offering was slightly different. That was a lot for our sales, customer service and technicians to keep up to date with. We were competing with ourselves in many places, covering the same areas with both wireless and wired service. That will now be a thing of the past. We will leave wireless to the people who make that their sole business, and focus ourselves completely on investing in, and improving, our wired networks, where we have a real competitive advantage. This should improve customer service, product design, and the speed at which we respond to new developments in broadband technology, including keeping up with bandwidth needs.

Please call us at 208 548 2345 if you have any concerns about this sale. I am confident that you will be very happy with results of the new direction we are taking as your local broadband service provider, and for those customers who will be transferred to Digis, we are also confident you will be happy with your continued wireless service—they are experts in the wireless field.

Filed under Press Releases, Product News, Public Notice Tagged with , , , , ,

Opening Ceremony & Ribbon Cutting for New Direct Communications Building in Eagle Mountain

October 6, 2011 by 1 Comment

 

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After months of hard work, Direct Communications was able to open the doors to their new building on Campus Drive in Eagle Mountain in February, 2011.  Our grand opening was held in June, along with the ribbon cutting of the Eagle Mountain City business incubator program.

In attendance were board members of the Lehi Chamber of Commerce, Eagle Mountain City Economic Development officials, the Mayor and the new business incubator tenants who will be starting up businesses as part of the partner program between the City and Directcom to encourage the growth of local businesses in Eagle Mountain

The building has 8 “pods”, or office spaces, approximately 2500 square feet each.  Direct Communications houses four of the pods, Beyond Limits Physical Therapy occupies one pod, and the Eagle Mountain City incubator program has the remaining three pods.  After working in two separate areas for several years, Direct Communications was excited to have all of their employees at the same location.

The private-public partnership between Direct Communications and Eagle Mountain City to create the incubator program is unlike any other project in the nation.  Mayor Heather Jackson called it “complete and utter innovation.  We have figured out our destiny, and we are opening our arms and inviting everyone here.”  The program allows participants to lease office space for three years, at no cost during the first year.  Business are given phone service and free internet services from Direct Communcations , along with a reception area, conference room, copy and fax equipment, av equipment, a break room, and janitorial services.  “We help startups with the hopes that they will move into our City,” said Ifo Pili, Eagle Mountain City Economic Development Director.

Direct Communications is proud of the hard work and dedication they give to their customers.  As Diane Bradshaw, Administrator for Direct Communications said, “having a new, professional building gives us the opportunity to show the customer we are dedicated to Eagle Mountain and are invested in our community.  Customers love coming in to pay their bill and check out our new facility and our employees love coming to work everyday to our beautiful offices.  Direct Communications is here to stay!”

Filed under Community Involvement, Press Releases Tagged with , , , , ,

Directcom’s Brenda Caldwell named Utah Valley’s Raddest Receptionist

September 29, 2011 by 2 Comments

Utah Valley BusinessQ Magazine. Fall 2011 - pg 34 -http://www.utahvalleybusinessq.com/fall2011/34.html

Congratulations to Direct Communications Cedar Valley’s own Brenda Caldwell on being named Utah Valley’s Raddest Receptionist by Utah Valley BusinessQ Magazine.

Brenda has been with the company for 4 years, and probably has never had a bad day at the office in all that time–at least from a customer perspective. If you have had any dealings with Brenda as a customer of Direct Communications, you know she is a deserving recipient of this award.

Diane Bradshaw, office manager of Direct Communications in Eagle Mountain stated in the article:

“Brenda is always, always, always pleasant to each and every customer that calls or comes into our office. She has a smile in her voice when she answers the phone and treats each customer with respect and kindness, no matter what the situation.”

To view the article online, visit http://www.utahvalleybusinessq.com/fall2011/34.html

The following is an except from the article:

Q: How do you greet callers?

A: “Direct Communications, this is Brenda.”

Q: What qualities make a receptionist successful?

A: You need to be patient, kind, reliable, personable and able to multitask.

Q: What do you wish people knew about receptionists?

A: I wish they knew being a receptionist is one of the best jobs. Interacting with customers and other companies and coworkers is so much fun.

Q: What’s on your desk?

A: My phone, a tape dispenser, stapler, post-it notes and stacking trays with my paperwork in them.

Q: What does it mean to you to be “the face” of the company?

A: Being “the face” of the company means I have the most interaction with the customers. They see and talk to me more than anyone in the company, so it is very important to be professional but friendly.

Q: What music plays when you put someone on hold?

A: Soft music and ads about our company.

Q: What’s your strategy in dealing with upset callers?

A: Being a good listener, having empathy and not taking things personally.

Q: Most memorable client interaction?

A: A customer came in every month to pay her bill. We would talk, and she invited me to go to California with her and her family since I had never been.

Q: Funniest client interaction?

A: When I was working a part-time job at the local gas station as well as here at Direct Communications, one of our customers came in and asked me if I had a sister who worked at the gas station. I told her I worked at both places, and she asked if I was sure because I looked a lot younger than the girl who works at the gas station.

Q: Favorite fictional portrayal of a receptionist?

A: Ryan Reynolds as Sandra Bullock’s assistant in “The Proposal.”

www.utahvalleybusinessq.com

Utah Valley Magazine is a trademark of Bennett Communications, Inc. 

“Bennett Communications, the parent company of Utah Valley Magazine, is now in its 11th year of publishing. The company publishes four original titles and partners with local organizations on a variety of other projects.

In Utah, Bennett Communications publishes three original titles: Utah Valley Magazine, Utah Valley Business Quarterly, Utah Valley Bride and MainStreet Magazine. Utah Valley Magazine is published six times a year, UVBQ comes out quarterly and Utah Valley Bride is an annual publication that starts distribution in November” - http://utahvalleybusinessq.com/about/

Filed under Press Releases Tagged with , ,

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