Frontier internet upgrades cause some slowdowns

Frontier Communications internet users in the Du Quoin area were experiencing a great deal of difficulty the end of last week using the service. Places like Du Quoin city hall, some of the churches and local businesses as well as individual subscribers were seeing slow download and upload times.

On occasion, the system didn't seem to work at all.

The newspaper had difficulty in going online to obtain information published daily in the newspaper as well as seeing a slowdown in the way we electronically send our pages and projects to what are known as ftp sites in the area. Frontier technicians who came to the newspaper to install a new modem advised us the slowdowns were the result of upgrades.

Du Quoin Mayor Rex Duncan inquired and got the answer:

"I checked with Eric Shadley, Frontier's Southern Illinois General Manager, who I've worked with through Connect SI. He confirms that Frontier is indeed in the process of upgrading their internet equipment at the Du Quoin office. He says engineers are working on the upgrades and that the work may continue into the third week in March. He said this should only impact internet service, not phone service."

Internet service over the Frontier system seemed to improve on Tuesday and Wednesday and continues to get better as the week continues.