TEC

You wake up alone in a small tent, the air is hot and dusty as it fills your lungs up. You walk outside and see that you've been dropped off in the desert. No water. No food. You walk for miles and miles...nothing. All of a sudden, a stranger walks upon you and in his outstretched arms is a tall glass of ice cold water and a double cheeseburger from the burger joint. This is what TEC is to the good folk out in the county. I've had satellite -- HARD PASS. The ping times are horrid since they try and track every download/bit of data that you use. ATT's base DSL (which they will say that's all you can have, but they are full of it) claims to be 1mb+ but is more than likely going to be around 300-600 kbps after packet loss. Granted, TEC is not cheap as Comcast or ATT. As a matter of fact, it costs 3x what you would pay with someone else (if you're in the service area). Still, to someone that comes from having blazing fast net, I'll gladly pay the BUMP to have decent internet. This is my MAJOR GRIPE with TEC -- the PRICE. I would suggest a LOYALTY PROGRAM to its returning customers from year to year and/or maybe to the ones that actually pay their bill on time each month. Maybe have a year to year discount for those people to get those bills down from 90 per month to 60-70 per month. I love the ladies in my local Bay Springs area office. They are nothing less than the most respectful, helpful and knowledgeable people I've ever spoken to over the phone when dealing with this type of service. I was experiencing issues with a headset while playing an online video game and to my surprise, the lady on the other end of the call knew what I was talking about and gave me a solution that she did herself. These are good people. I would try and call them after hours though or you'll get those people who answer they don't know and will straight tell you to call back Monday morning.

I have to say TEC is a breath of fresh air after having another provider for 7 years only because I had to due to employers required hardwire connection for work at home positions I held. Until moving to another county where internet is not offered by previous provider, I had one choice for an internet provider that was acceptable for work at home. I enjoy TEC internet but I need higher upload than 3.0 Mbps, but download at 15.0 Mbps is perfect. I am in a rural area and of course the last to get any upgrades for speed increase. The cost is what it is and I have to pay for what I ask for! New customers have to sign three year agreements and if the agreement isn't met you can be charged a phenomenal penalty. No television service is available, had to stick with DirecTV. The telephone service with TEC is great and inexpensive to have, the only downfall for phone service is when to dial local or not. Customer service is very professional but yet make you feel valued. Only one bad experience with a representative with TEC whereas that one lady was rude, and could care less what your call is about or the situation, wasn't her problem attitude. Beside that I appreciate TEC and most of their workers that keep mine and others service up and running. Rural areas around MS need providers such as Cox to turn to for a great choice for internet, cable, and telephone.