FairPoint PR Fumbles

One of the readers of this blog pointed out that the FairPoint coverage map at http://www.fairpoint.com/northern_ne/ne_service_map.jsp is indeed out-of-date subsequent to the big installation push at the end of 2010.  I can't swear that no updates have been made.  However, with respect to the town of Northport, with which I am personally concerned, and where at least parts of the town have excellent service up to 15 Mbps, there has been no change.

In terms of public relations, this is pretty dumb.  It turns on its head the old pattern, "Tell them what you are going to do, tell them you are doing it, tell them it has been done."  The new FairPoint pattern: "Tell them you may do it sometime, tell them you did a lot of something somewhere."

If finances are so bad as to require a choice between doing and telling the public in detail what you have done, then we all would prefer that network upgrade and extension take priority.  However, a financially healthy FairPoint also requires that attention be paid to promotion of new service availability so that the installation investment can come back more quickly in the form of a growing subscriber base.  Inattention to the online coverage map and other PR work way be penny-wise and pound-foolish, in other words.