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Important news from TDS — COVID-19 Update for Customers

We are committed to keeping you connected.

TDS is committed to offering reliable, resilient communications service to our customers, in good times and in times of crisis. We anticipate the COVID-19 viral outbreak will increase Internet usage demands as more customers find themselves working, learning and otherwise staying at home. We’d like to share our operations support and business continuity strategy with you, so you can rest assured your service is supported.

Our Pandemic Tactical Team is actively monitoring the situation in a coordinated manner with federal, state, and local health and safety officials. We are implementing the following strategies and protocols to protect our customers and employees, while also keeping our network performing for you.

Specifically:

    1. Our network infrastructure is built and maintained to anticipate future demand, not simply to keep up with what today might bring.
    2. Our Business Continuity Plan further addresses crisis events. The cornerstone is a robust, redundant network with backup systems strategically placed to safeguard against unexpected disruptions in the network. We are taking steps to monitor available bandwidth and will increase staffing to address isolated incidents, if they arise.
    3. Our Operations team leverages real-time technology with human expertise to match customer bandwidth demand with system performance.
    4. Our geographically diverse workforce is able to transfer traffic, inquiries and workload to alternate locations if needed. Our workforce is also equipped to work from home as much as necessary to adapt to evolving CDC recommendations.
    5. All non-essential travel and in-person meetings are being suspended in lieu of virtual meetings.
    6. Any staff that interacts directly with customers has received additional hygiene training and sanitation toolkits, to ensure both the employee and the customer is fully protected.
    7. Before scheduling business or in-home visits, customers will be asked if anyone in the home or business will be asked the following: Are you or anyone that lives in, works at, or visits the Service Address experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms or been in close contact with anyone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms in the last 14 days, for example: fever over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, cough, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, chills/repeated shaking with chills, fatigue, muscle pain, bluish lips or face, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, and/or headaches? To maximize everyone’s safety and to prevent further spread of illness, our staff may ask for your cooperation in rescheduling service appointments if the status has changed by the time of the appointment.
    8. We would like to proactively ask for your patience when it comes to scheduling on-premise technician visits. We may experience some unavoidable periods of peak demand if we have staff following CDC recommendations for self-isolation.
    9. Finally, we are committed to supporting customers who are the hardest hit by the economic challenges attributed to the outbreak. Customers directly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic will remain connected to internet and phone service and late fees will be suspended for at least the next 60 days.
    10. New customers with students or financial need will be eligible for 60 days of free internet access, to help assist with work- or school-at-home scenarios.

    PLEASE NOTE: The last day to take advantage of this offer will be April 16, 2020. We will honor this offer for any customer that requested service up through April 16, even if they have yet to be installed.The intent of the offer was to help households impacted by COVID-19 be able to get internet to help with distance learning. After reviewing many of the distance learning decisions and school end dates for the schools in our serving area, we believe that the majority of customers who need the service for home schooling have already signed up. Seniors and supervisors can continue to honor this on a case by case basis through the end of the month.

    Customers that received this 60 day free offer are promo eligible, and they can call in and will remain eligible for 60 days following the end of their 60 day free offer. We are looking at possibly automatically extending discounts to these customers and additional communication will be sent if needed.

    If you have any service-related questions or concerns, please reach out to us at 1-844-239-9621.

    We sincerely wish the best for you and yours through this challenging time.

     



5 Responses to Important news from TDS — COVID-19 Update for Customers

  1. James F. Andrus March 22, 2020 at 12:42 am #

    To help TDS customer morale during.the Coronavirus pandemic, why not offer all premium channels free for all of us isolated at home. This could be a smart marketing move to let customers see what premium channels offer. Then they might want to subscribe to premium channels after the pandemic is over and normal premium subscription prices resume. Customers might appreciate such a benevolent gesture by TDS and remain loyal subscribers. This would generate great publicity for TDS.

    • Cheryl McCollum March 26, 2020 at 6:44 pm #

      We are offering several free trials of premium channels now. Here is a complete list: https://wp.me/p728pC-21H HBO will be offering a free preview April 17-20.

  2. Mr. Gail Campbell April 13, 2020 at 7:44 pm #

    I have a technician scheduled to come and do some work inside of my home. I want to know that they will have both gloves and face mask on when they enter the house, to protect us the customer, as well as themselves from any potential transmission of the coronavirus.
    Will the technician be wearing gloves and a mask when they enter my home?
    C.G.

    • Cheryl McCollum April 14, 2020 at 5:57 pm #

      Yes, Gail our technicians wear gloves and have face masks. Here is some additional information you may be interested in:

      We have:
      • limited in-home/in-business technician visits wherever possible
      • provided gloves and disinfectant wipes everywhere in the field and our retail offices
      • implemented screening for both technicians and customers for COVID-19 symptoms
      • created new policies requiring authorization before entering homes and businesses
      • instituted safe physical distancing requirements in all our transactions
      • eliminated in-person payments for the time being
      • controlled the flow of customers in our retail offices by allowing only one customer per agent at a time; also installed Plexiglas barriers at each counter
      • reminded employees if they’re on-site and the situation does not feel safe, they are encouraged to remove themselves, reschedule for a later date, and escalate to their supervisor
      • secured more personal protective equipment including additional masks, hand sanitizer, and coveralls which are now on their way to the field.

  3. Gail April 15, 2020 at 1:07 am #

    Thanks Cheryl! I really appreciate the information.

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