Last month, I started posting comments from the public on the MN Public Utility Commission’s situation with LTD Broadband and a request to look at revoking their ETC designation. Today I have two more to add.
Part of the comment from Le Sueur County, who has been engaged with the process and has submitted comments in the past:
Le Sueur County support the PUC lifting the ALJ stay and granting the Petitioner’s motion to suspend LTD’s RDOF ETC designation previously granted by the Commission.
As was stated in our May 2022 comments, Le Sueur County is particularly impacted as it relates to RDOF and related LTD census tracts bid awards within our County. To the best of our knowledge, LTD has been potentially awarded 415 census tracts in our County. The entire RDOF award for LTD amounts to around $1 million in Le Sueur County, an average of $2,410 per census tract.
Within our internal planning processes, and working with existing providers, we estimate a cost of at least $12 million to build fiber-to-the-door, even with extensive middle mile fiber already in place.
Since our last comments, we are not aware of any significant work conducted, underway or planned within our County by LTD to install fiber networks in our communities. …
Continued concerns of misreporting data and services.
We have received numerous complaints from residents about the level of technical and customer service that LTD provides. In fact, a recent GIS mapped survey within our county collected data on 120 current LTD customers in our county. Of the 120 responses, 100 of them reported negative feedback about LTD service. In speed test data collected from LTD customers, the average download speed was nine down and one up. If you review the FCC National Broadband map, LTD reports speeds in Le Sueur County that are 250 down and 250 up, which are false.
And a comment from Martha Milburn
Dear Sir or Madam:
I see that the Blandin Blog reported that your agency is accepting public input on LTD’s operations in Minnesota.
I currently live in the Twin Cities but am from southern MN, where all of my immediate and extended family live.
LTD should not be allowed to operate any further in this state. It is an injustice that not only do they operate but actually received federal internet funds.
One can do a basic internet search and find multiple complaints about their service in MN. The following took me 5 minutes to find through a simple google search. These customer testimonials appear publicly on a website called “Downhunter” (www.downhunter.com) and are all from MN.
Comments on LTD Broadband
Let others know about your problems with LTD Broadband:
Kris 3 weeks ago
4 days of the same template response: we know there is an issue, we are working on it, no ETR. If issues persistent for more than 2 hours contact us again.
Neil Mahr 1 month ago
52155 Terrible customer service I was 1st in line on phone for 38 minutes and got no answer why down switching service as soon as contact is up
Josephine 3 months ago
LTD slows or fails at least twice a month. Customer service is ineffective. No one knows anything about why there are constant problems. I can’t wait to cancel with them. 56058. St Peter, MN
Pat Iverson 9 months ago
55060 Owatonna Mn It is 11:26 pm still no internet. I know they are working on problem,but would appreciate updates on progress on repair and general idea of when service might be restored.
Deb P 9 months ago
Rochester 55901. Our Internet went down about 9:30 on 10/17. Still out today, so unable to get any work done. Calling the Tower Support # (we host a tower on our silo but that’s not where our signal comes from- which tech support found surprising another time) only to be instantly greeted by Muzak and “thank you for your patience” every 15 minutes. Regular Support # is off the hook. It is completely shameful that we live 6 miles from Rochester city limits and have such crap internet service!
Tanya 9 months ago
56073 – no service since 9pm last night, 10/17. No communication on the problem. Support line just says “wide spread outages” and call back in an hour if you continue to have issues. It’s been 23 hours…
Andrew K 9 months ago
56048 Janesville—we have been without internet now since early am. No good reason for internet to be out this long. Tired of this. Anyone know of better internet provider?
John 9 months ago
Monday Oct 17th, 2022 lost service at 930pm for about 15 minutes and when it came back on, the service was extremely slowed. This morning woke up to the same issue and has been continuously on and off all day. Working from home, wife has schooling and testing, kids out for school so that’s not drawing any bandwidth, we can only have 1 thing hooked to the internet at a time. Currently using the Hotspot of my phone to do computer work and have used all the data from the provider for the phone service. Will rhere be compensation for the phone bill? We use heavy data in this house hold due to types of drafting and design/and her school masters programs. When will service be back to full and when can we expect compensation? Truman, mn, 56088
Nicole 9 months ago
Another day of nearly constant outage. Another disrupted work day that includes important Zoom mtgs. St. Peter,
MN Minnesota PUC, Please revoke this company’s ability to operate in this state. Southern MN cannot afford to have poor broadband. It affects educational and business opportunities.
Sincerely, Martha Milburn