GreenePA customers still looking for service
WAYNESBURG – A week after Greene County’s oldest Internet service provider ended operations, its former customers are still attempting to reestablish their connections to the Internet, e-mail accounts and Web sites hosted by the company. GreenePA, Inc., informed its customers in late June that it would close by the end of the month, giving subscribers roughly a week to find a different provider. However, many residents, businesses and offices across the county began losing service during the last week of June, and some are still attempting to switch providers and regain Internet and e-mail access.
Melody Longstreth, the executive director of the Waynesburg Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber, which had its e-mail and Web hosting services donated by GreenePA, has been without those services since Tuesday, June 26. According to Longstreth, the chamber has also lost its Internet connection, which was provided by Windstream Communications. Longstreth said Windstream technicians told her that the chamber’s modem had died.
“We’ve been down for a week,” Longstreth said Tuesday. “We came to depend on the Internet so much that when it’s such a day-to-day part of life, it’s serious.”
Longstreth said the chamber is working with Windstream, a Little Rock, Ark.-based company that offers phone, broadband and digital television services, to reestablish its Internet and e-mail, and she hopes to re-launch its Web site through another host.
Windstream had leased space on its broadband infrastructure to GreenePA, according to Windstream spokesperson Erin Ascione.
“We no longer offer them services,” she said of the company’s agreement with GreenePA.
Windstream has seen “a slight influx in customers in Greene County,” Ascione said, although she noted it was difficult to differentiate between those who subscribed to GreenePA and those who did not.
“Some of them are calling in for broadband specifically, and others are calling in for phone, broadband and digital TV,” she said.
The switch to a provider that offers services in 16 states, not just locally, will be an adjustment for GreenePA’s customers.
“It was nice to have a little gem here in that we had our own Internet service provider, and they were really pioneers,” Longstreth said about GreenePA, which is still a chamber member.
Other local businesses have suffered similar problems with lack of Internet access, including country-music radio station WANB, which used GreenePA as its Internet service and e-mail account provider and Web host.
Doug Wilson, WANB’s operations manager, said the station’s connection lasted until Friday, June 29, although the station had been preparing for the change.
“As of Friday afternoon, we had made the switch to another Internet provider,” Wilson said. “We had also set up a new e-mail address through Google.”
However, the station’s Web site is inactive while it looks for another Web host.
“Unfortunately, our Web site is down until we get a new server for that,” Wilson said. “We’re looking for the best deal, one that will serve us the best in the long-term.”
Switching to a new company will prove to be a bit difficult on a more personal level as well.
“I will miss the local ties because GreenePA was run locally, and when we had technical issues, we could talk to someone from Greene County,” Wilson said.
Company representatives could not be reached for comment Thursday. Calls to GreenePA’s offices on Porter Street in Waynesburg reached a voice mailbox, which indicated the box was full.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State’s Web site, GreenePA, Inc., is still listed as an active business.
In an e-mail dated Friday, June 22, GreenePA advised customers it would “cease operations by the end of June, 2007” and noted an inability to keep up with quickly changing technology and competitors who offer lower prices.
The e-mail thanks the company’s “loyal customers,” as does a message on its Web site: “We are truly sorry for the problems that going out of business will cause. Once again, thank you all for your patronage over the years.”