SUSSEX COUNTY, Del.- Jacqueline Lebo of Georgetown has had many text message conversations with Mediacom since she moved into her new house last April.
The problems this week, especially on Monday, were a breaking point for her.
"It was out the whole day," Lebo said. "Nobody had answers as to why. They don't even let you know why it's out. And then you have to call and figure out what's going on and they say there's an outage in your area. Then, they text you and say it'll be resolved by 3, it'll be resolved by 4, it'll be resolved by 6:30, it'll be resolved by midnight."
One virtual parent teacher organization meeting at the Indian River School District was postponed due to internet issues. Also, students in one school were unable to access online resources for an assignment.
Mediacom responded to the issues, explaining there was an issue in the processing center in Atlanta. It blocked the transmission of data for about five hours Monday and three hours Tuesday.
In a statement to WRDE, Mediacom Senior Director of Communications Phyllis Peters was apologetic to customers.
"We regret the interruption this caused for Mediacom customers using our broadband service in Sussex County, Delaware. This was a very rare type of electrical issue that could not be anticipated, and not the type of situation that our network monitoring tools would see in advance."
Some people in Millsboro believe that Mediacom can be the only internet provider in the town. But Town Manager Sheldon Hudson says that is not the case.
"The Town of Millsboro does have a franchise agreement with Mediacom but it's non-exclusive so that means there is nothing to stop a Comcast or Verizon FIOS from coming into town," Hudson said. "In fact, the town would like to see more competition."
A petition has been posted online asking for a second internet option in Millsboro. Nearly 400 people have signed it. Viewers have reported outages in Ocean View and Bethany Beach.
Another outage was reported to WRDE by Mediacom around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday evening. Peters said the problem came from the same center in Atlanta. Service was restored by about 5:45 p.m. She says the engineering team is giving the issue full attention and there are more people monitoring the situation.
Staying connected is more important than ever but roadblocks have persisted even with problems over 700 miles away.