Pilot participants have been experiencing poor Internet performance in both the Urban and Rural areas. Due to packet loss, loading web pages took a long time and often timed out. 20/20 and Siemens engineers with the assistance of some of our pilot participants were able to pinpoint the source of the problems and implement corrections.

In the urban area, radios were randomly taking themselves offline and rebooting. The radios required a firmware upgrade that was installed over a three day period ending on Monday night, January 29.

It was just the opposite in the rural areas. A firmware upgrade installed on participants CPE's was the cause of poor service and had to be backed off. All changes were made by Tuesday, January 30. Participants should notice a better service beginning today, Wednesday, January 31.

Also, some participants have noticed they cannot get to websites they were previously able to access when using Wireless Washtenaw. This is due to a new problem with the Wireless Washtenaw domain name services (DNS). 20/20 and Siemens engineers are working on a solution as I write this.

Lastly, as we requested a couple of updates ago, participants have been calling the customer support number 877-777-5051 when experiencing network problems. Also, as we requested, participants have been calling 20/20 Communications to relate their experience with the service desk. On a scale of one (1) to ten (10) with 10 being the highest, I would say the highest rating would be a two (2), and that's being generous. Rest assured, both Siemens and 20/20 Communications are committed to providing top notch service and have made this issue a high if not the highest priority.

In the beginning of the pilot, 20/20 said we were looking for pilot participants to be more of a partner than a customer. The response and willingness of participants to help in problem resolutions has proven we've gotten just what we've asked for: Partners. We at 20/20 truly appreciate the efforts of all pilot participants in providing input and feedback. This partnership helps ensure we build the best service possible and provide the benefits of free and low cost broadband Internet service to the entire Washtenaw community.

20/20 Communications was selected by Washtenaw County to provide county wide Wireless Internet access.

The project is currently in the ninth week of the Pilot Phase. The pilot is scheduled through February.

If you have questions or would like to register for the service when it's in your area, Click Here.