The City of Carthage was looking to increase Internet speeds for its various departments and save taxpayer money. With help from Fidelity Communications, it was able to do that and much more.
“We changed our phones and Internet service to Fidelity,” said Debbie Pierce, city secretary, “And in doing so, we identified the lines we could do without, came up with several ways to group phones together, and found circuits we were no longer using.
Using a combination of coax and fiber optic cable, Fidelity ran service to City Hall, the police department, library, parks, water, fire and street departments, as well as the Chamber of Commerce Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.
Served by fiber, City Hall now has 30 Megabits per second (MBPS) Internet service and six phone lines with unlimited long distance. The police department has 20 MBPS with eight phone lines and unlimited long distance.
Coax cable modems provide 20 MBPS Internet to the library and fire department and 10 MBPS to parks, street and water departments. The Hall of Fame has 20 MBPS Internet and two unlimited long distance phone lines.
Pierce credited Fidelity business sales representative Tasha Roberts with helping determine what was needed and how to save money. “Tasha took copies of our phone bills, analyzed them and determined what they had us billed for and what we really needed. So we were able to cut back on phone lines, see quite significant cost savings and get better Internet service,” she said.
In addition, Fidelity was able to combine the charges for all the services into a single bill for each city fund, billing each department separately. “That saved me an enormous amount of time,” Pierce said.
Internet service is much faster than the previous provider and any issues are fixed promptly, she said. “It’s great having a local representative like Tasha who is so responsive,” Pierce added.
Police Chief Jim Vanover said his department is thrilled with the faster Internet. “With fiber, we’ve had no problems at all,” he said. “It’s great. And we have to have it.” Traffic accidents are reported via the Internet, and it’s used to communicate data to City Hall, like payroll and budget information.
With previous providers, he said, “We’d come to work some days and be online, then it would go off at 7 a.m. and we’d have to wait all day to get it fixed. When we don’t have Internet, we’re kind of handicapped.”
Roberts said Fidelity is passionate about customer service. “We take great pride in being a part of the communities we serve, like Carthage, and strive to understand our customers’ needs and exceed their expectations.”
“Our partnership with the City of Carthage is an example of our continued effort to make a difference in the communities we operate in,” Director of Sales Holly Bryant added. “Our sales team invested the time to listen to the needs of the City and provide a solution that improves their efficiency today and for the future.”
About Fidelity Communications
Since 1940, Fidelity has been committed to bringing the latest technology and services to the customers it serves. Fidelity Communications is a family-owned Internet, Cable TV and phone company headquartered in Sullivan, Missouri. Fidelity has been providing services in Missouri for 75 years and in Lawton, Oklahoma for the past seven years. Fidelity now provides about 115,000 Internet, Cable TV and local phone services in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The acquisition of former Cobridge systems in four states were rebranded as Fidelity in early June of 2012. To learn more, visit www.fidelitycommunications.com.
