On July 3, I was able to declare my independence from Comcast, finally. I have been very vocal against Comcast, for very good reasons, and am delighted to be free of them. The lady who accepted my return cable boxes and canceled my account was not pleasant, and actually sneered at me when I told her I now have EPB Fiber To The Home. She said, "Well, good for you" like a little school girl. Another example of Comcast's level of customer service.

I am now a Fi-oneer. That means I am a test home for EPB's new Fiber To The Home services. I have FiTV, Fi-Speed Internet and FiPhone.

The television is fantastic; we have a multitude of channels, both high def and non high def; local, 'cable,' sports, movies, etc. Contracts are still being completed with a couple of providers, so we are missing my favorite, HGTV. I have been told that it will be coming in less that two weeks.

Although as with any new product there are occasional glitches, but we have only had a few, minor not major ones, at that. The picture might freeze for a few seconds, or pixilate for a few seconds. There are some things you need to learn about the remote control.

The most wonderful thing is the customer service people are pleasant and helpful when you have a problem, or even just a question. Apparently, they actually have assigned a specific person to our account. His name is Eric. Once a problem has been reported, he calls me to make sure things are fixed, and calls a couple of days later just to check to see if they have continued to work properly. You can't ask for more.

The outside installers were late for their appointment; I thought, here we go, just like Comcast. They left their trash from the installation on my patio. My dogs could have eaten the cable ties and wire snippets they left on the patio. I called; they apologized and said they would make sure it did not happen to anyone else.

The inside installer, Phillip, was on time. He was kind and considerate, very knowledgeable, he cleaned up after himself, and made sure I knew how to operate things before he left. Very different from Comcast, thankfully.

The FiPhone is just like before with MaBell. EPB took care of porting our same number, we didn't notice any interruption in service at all.

The Fi-Speed Internet is so so fast. Nothing compares to it. Nothing.

My contact at EPB is Lacie Newton. She is very quick to respond when I have a question. I had a small installation problem early on, and she fixed it right away.

Lacie tells me she needs more fi-oneers. Don't you want to be free of Comcast, too? Call her, she is waiting to hear from you.

Pam Stone

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I can't wait to be a fi-oneer. When is EPB going to bring fi-speed service to Signal Mountain? It seems as if we are always the last to get a new service (DSL, cable internet, and now fiber to the home). So we're waiting, as patiently as we can ... please hurry, EPB.

Joe Dumas

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I can't wait. EPB's crew was in my backyard this morning running some "support cable" between the poles along my property line. Won't be long, we'll have ourselves some fiber optic service in Brainerd.

Jim Stevens
Chattanooga

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Well, Comcast's wonderful "customer service" has given me yet another reason to switch to EPB. Despite the fact Comcast posted my payment last week, their contractor - Macko Tech, still cut off service to my home.

When I called Comcast's "service" number, I got the same old arrogance. A second call required me to pay a current bill in advance. Then I was told I must wait at home for the (notorious) tech to arrive between the hours of 9-5 or thereabout. The "service" person on the phone could not tell me why I had to waste time waiting for someone to reconnect my cable when they disconnected it from the telephone pole without me home.

Seems Comcast is begging to get sued and lose customers. And how in the world my friends at WGOW advocate for them remains a mystery. Hurry up, EPB.

Robin Flores