[QCLUG] More Information from the Dispatch

[Jim Kristan]

By Brandy Donaldson, staff writer


The former owners of a local Internet service say they regret any
service problems customers have had, and wish to make it clear they
are no longer able to assist them.
In March, Bill and Joy Reveal sold almost all aspects of Internet
Revealed, their Moline-based Internet service, to Solo Direct Connect
of Davenport, causing some confusion among paying patrons.
'All our customers became Solo Direct's,' Mr. Reveal said Tuesday. 'On
March 1, they took over the servicing of all Internet Revealed
customers, except for web design clients.'
According to Mr. Reveal, as a part of the sale agreement Solo Direct
was given permission to continue using the ISP's name and Internet
domain. 'We turned everything over to Solo Direct Connect,' he said.
'We have no management or owner control.'
Since the transfer, customers email him on a daily basis regarding
persistent technical and customer service issues, Mr. Reveal said.
'My heart is real heavy. I'm greatly saddened by the problems my
former customers are having,' Mr. Reveal said. 'We tried to treat our
members like family. It deeply hurts me they are having problems right
now. I wish I could help them, but they're not my customers anymore.'
Mr. Reveal said he also wishes he had more definitive answers for
those customers.
'I was told (Solo Direct Connect) was having problems with one of
their providers, problems with routing and whatnot, so people were
having trouble getting onto the Internet,' he said. 'But I don't know
if that's true. I'm not involved with their operation. We're no longer
part of the company.'
Last week, several hundred Internet Revealed customers found
themselves without service. Andy Tyrrell, president of Solo Direct
Connect said a 'small glitch' occurred when his company attempted to
move the newly acquired dial-up customers over to another company's
network. Solo Direct is exclusively a wireless, broadband provider, so
the company had to outsource the new dial-up clients.
The glitch was promptly handled and everyone is back online now, Mr.
Tyrrell said Tuesday. He said that any delay in service was due to the
flood of calls they received regarding the issue. Calls made to
Internet Revealed's business number are transferred to Solo Direct.
'Internet Revealed is no longer in existence. We bought their customer
list and forwarded their service over to Level 3, because we don't do
any dial-up over here,' Mr. Tyrrell explained. 'About 100 customers
had problems with the transition. Everybody's up and running now. They
were out of service for little more than a day.'
Mr. Reveal said he knows how fickle technology can be, and understands
there being problems with the transition. But he feels his former
clients are being somewhat misled.
'There's always going to be technical difficulties, especially in
transition periods,' he said. 'You're always going to run into issues.
Glitches do happen. It's not like we went 12 years without problems
when we were running it. But we dealt with them and tried to be
honest. We tried to keep people updated with what's going on. I
haven't seen that with Solo Direct Connect. ...
'And for them to even imply we have anything to do with it is rather
misleading. It doesn't matter what the business is called, (customers)
are still being handled by Solo Direct.'
Mr. Reveal said that he and his wife, Joy, decided to become
associated with Solo in 2006 when they were pitched a plan for their
customers to be the first in the Quad-Cities to be offered WiMax, a
wireless technology.
'Solo Direct came and told us about their vision of bringing WiMax to
the Quad-Cities,' he explained. 'We felt like dial-up was pretty much
a dead horse, so we said we like that vision. I bought into that whole
concept.'
However, Mr. Reveal said Solo Direct has yet to make WiMax available.
Regardless of what has or hasn't happened, the Reveals, who soon will
be relocating to Omaha, Neb., want people to know where they stand.
'We don't have any control and aren't involved with Solo Direct, other
than they have to pay us monthly royalties on the customers we sold,'
he said.
Another company with plans to roll out WiMax in the area is
Quad-Cities Online, a subsidiary of Moline Dispatch Publishing Co.,
LLC. Quad-Cities Online has a partnership with Black Hawk College for
a long-term lease of licensed frequencies held by the school that will
enable Quad-Cities Online to build a high-speed Internet access
'cloud' over the area. The company is currently working with Nortel on
the WiMax system here.