702 Communications, Local Telecommunications in North Dakota and Minnesota
If you’ve had to wait minutes just to talk to a human when you call with a simple question concerning your internet service, the time has come to go local.
When you talk about telephone service, internet service or Web hosting are you put on hold first. That is what I have dealt with in the past when I had my telephone and internet with major companies that had those 800 numbers for service.
I discovered a local company in the Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota area that is local. The office and service department is five blocks from my house. I’m not sure where they have their computers as far as web hosting and such are, but when I was trying to hook up my laptop and could not get the settings done, I walked down the block and they got it set up in person.
That’s customer service. No doubt in my mind that 702 Communications is a local service that cares about it’s customers.
702 Communications is a communications provider in two locations, Fargo-Moorhead-Dilworth and Wahpeton-Breckenridge. The companies offices for the Fargo Moorhead area is at 702 Main Avenue Moorhead Minnesota. Their office in the Wahpeton area is at 325 Dakota Avenue Wahpeton.
702 Communications is a jointly owned limited liability partnership initially organized in 1989 to provide Interactive Educational Video and Audio services to a group of public schools in western Minnesota.
There website is available here: http://www.702com.net/
They are owned by six independent telephone companies who operate in the central Minnesota area. That means to it’s customers that they are not some far off business that does not care much about it’s customers in a far off state. Local is what it means. A local company that has it’s customers in the same city as it’s offices and service centers.
You don’t get any more local when you talk about things like questions about your service, problems with setup and that nice personal touch by talking to a person, always.
I tried this little test, you call them at odd hours and you get an answering service, not some machine. A real human let’s you know from the start that they have a local company that is there.
Their service department will try to handle your problem and setup over the phone but if they can’t get it, then they will come out to you.
I have a friend that set up a new small business and she received the same personal service that I’m talking about. When she called to talk to them about getting her business hooked up with telephone, fax and internet service they had a salesman out to her business in short order to explain in person what she wanted and the different packages she could receive.
702 has a variety of phone services you can choose from, there is no guessing how much you’ll pay for service with them. They have a simple chart with the services listed for you to choose from and it’s pretty easy to figure out. For instance, basic service with no long distance and no features what so ever costs $18.99 at the time I wrote this. That is no long distance or any features. Long distance calls with this plan cost 15 cents a minute.
There is a tax and surcharge fee that they have to add but again they spell that out clearly upfront to you. It is about $6.50 which is added to all bills regardless of which package you opt for.
Then go to the Deluxe plan, which is what I have, $29.99 for the basic service. That includes 3 calling features and 50 minutes of long distance. Add dial up 56k internet service for $9.99 or go to high speed DSL 384K for $29.99. They have Premium and Elite services with even more features and better speed DSL service available.
The DSL is only available in certain areas of the cities due to how DSL works.
Basically DSL uses different bandwidth’s over your telephone line to communicate over the internet. It’s like using a different channel of a CB radio to get your internet. Due to loss of signal over distance the DSL service is only available at certain distances from the central offices or service computers that 702 has set up in the area.
Also due to how DSL works, the other phones in your home or business need to have this little filter put on the phone line to help keep the signal clear on the regular phones. It’s a simple little thing you just plug into the wall outlet and then plug the phone cord into the other end.
If you use the basic internet service for dial up you need to have a modem for your computer. For DSL you need to purchase a DSL modem from 702 for the service. They have sales from time to time for different services or packages.
You need to call or go to their offices to find out if you can get DSL service to your home or business.
Along with your internet mail service you have a logon to their servers that you can view your mail on. From anywhere, anytime. You can be on vacation and logon with a computer wherever and check your e-mail.
When they are going to be working on the phone system for an upgrade of their systems they will let you know ahead of time and then your bill will reflect the down time. Or if they have a problem with the service they will not bill you for time that you could not use the phone or internet.
There will be a deduction on your bill for the time that the system was down and you do not have to pay for the service for those minutes, or whatever the time was.
You can also get other services from them; Web hosting, small network setup, leased line and co-location for web hosting. These services are all explained on their web site and you can call or go in to find out more.
They have all kinds of things they talk about on their web site like inter-exchange services and fiber optics and such, but you can read all about that on their web site. I just want you to know that they are a reliable and local company that you can count on.
If you live in the Fargo North Dakota Moorhead Minnesota area or Wahpeton North Dakota Breckinridge Minnesota area, 702 Communication is the local telephone, internet, business and communications company you want.
