Despite complaints

of lack of service from several customers, AT&T Broadband's upgrade

of cable television service in Peachtree City was "one of our best

ever," said Steve Rhoads, director of technical operations for the

south region.

But Rhoads

promised to aggressively pursue the isolated problems.

Several residents

phoned The Citizen this week saying they have had no TV ever since the

cable upgrade was turned on two weeks ago, and one caller described attempts

to get problems fixed "a horror story."

Rhoads said

those problems are probably not related to the widespread outage that

occurred immediately following the upgrade in several complete neighborhoods.

That problem was repaired last week, he said.

But following

that outcome, more customers phoning the company's service line and setting

up appointments for service have been told later that their problem is

part of a wider "outage" and their service call has been cancelled.

Rhoads said

that was due to a communication problem between the upgrade construction

managers and the service center. He promised to let the service center

know that the problems in Peachtree City are due to upgrade construction

so the workers in the field can get right on each customer's complaint.

Probably, he

said, the isolated problems are due to human error such as workers accidentally

cutting the drop line that runs between house and street. Such problems

aren't apparent to repair workers in Peachtree City, where most of the

utilities are underground, said AT&T spokesman Reg Griffin.

"This

was kind of put on a fast track," Griffin said of the upgrade. The

company usually activates upgrades one neighborhood at a time, correcting

problems as they occur, he said, but because of its contract with Peachtree

City, calling for activation by the end of the year, the company turned

on all 13,000 Peachtree City customers at one time, he said.

Now that The

Citizen has alerted them to the problems, "We'll get on this right

away," said Rhoads, "and hopefully eliminate this issue."

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