Company News

News for 24 November 2007 ConnectME Assessment Billed Starting 12/01/2007

Starting 12/1/07 the ConnectME authority will be assessing each Hi Speed internet connection a fee of 1/4% of the billing amount paid to the ISP provider. The legislature authorized this surcharge and it will be collected by your ISP provider. For a typical monthly fee of $44.95 the surcharge will be $ 0.125 for a total payment of $ 45.08.

The purpose for this assessment is to created a revolving fund that will be used to deliver grants to bring Hi Speed internet service to economically unattractive areas and enable coverage of all unserved areas in the state.

To learn more about the ConnectME Law and high-speed commission, visit Maine.gov

News for 15 November 2007 - Mainely Wired Proudly Announces New Operations Manager!

Mike Fuller, a recent graduate of Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, will be overseeing the Wireless division of Mainely Wired LLC as acting Operations Manager. He will be responsible for all wireless operations in the Mid Coast area and will share responsibility for the Mid Maine wireless operation with Tim McDonald. Please join us in congratulating Mike on this well deserved promotion.

News for 31 August 2007 - Mid-Maine Outage Repaired

MW Customers in the Pittsfield/Newport/Hartland market experienced an outage from 6:30p until 11a. This was due to a connectivity problem outside of our network and has been repaired.

News for 21 August 2007 - Systemwide Network Maint.

MW customers should expect slight service interruptions as planned network upgades are being implemented. If more than 1 hr is needed, all customers will be notified.

News for 11 June 2007 - Midcoast and Skowhegan Network Maint.

We will be upgrading modem software and making internal network changes in the Midcoast and Skowhegan markets. If you are in these markets, this may mean that you will have degraded, limited, or no service during this period.

The event will be between 10p and 12a on Thursday, June 14th, 2007.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.

News for 31 May 2007 - Systemwide E-mail Upgrades

Dear Mainely Wired Customers,

Customer reports of spam have been heard loud and clear. We've been testing a new mail server for a few weeks and it's time to move the mainelywired.net users.

This change will start at or around 11pm on Friday, June 1st, and will last up to the end of our Daily Maintenance Window at 6am on Saturday, June 2nd. Mail services will be unavailable during this time period. Mail services will likely be restored well ahead of the end of the window.

This new server will provide several benefits:
* Seamless Transition - We're moving your mailbox/passwords/etc. from old to new. You won't have to change anything on your computer.
* Faster - The new system is much faster than the old one.
* Smart Spam Filtering - If you get a lot of spam, you should get a lot less.
* Fraud/Phishing Reporting - The new system will help you detect some of the 'fake' e-mails claiming to be banks, eBay, Paypal, etc.

We want to make you aware of some changes/issues that may affect you:
* Webmail will be moving - It will be at http://mail.mainelywired.net after the transition.
* Passwords may stop working - This is rare, but if your password no longer works, simply contact Mainely Wired for a password change. Your mail will not be lost.
* Duplicate Messages - After the transition, some customers may see messages they've already received previously. This will happen only once.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.

News for 23 May 2007 - Wow! It's been a while!

To all our customers, we realize it's been a while since we updated this news page. During this time we have focused exhaustively on improving and upgrading our network. We felt this was the best use of our time and resources - however we do apologize for the lack of news update during this time. We hope the improvements to the network speak for themselves! A few items that have improved since the skowhegan cutover:

• Pittsfield Cutover - we cutover to a new, faster circuit in Pittsfield. This caused some inadvertent and unexpected problems, but after extensive analysis and many painful days later, we discovered the problem and fixed it. Our Pittsfield network is now back and stronger then ever before.
• Pittsfield Wireless Network Upgrades - we upgraded our antennas on the Pittsfield Water Tank to sectors, reducing interference problems and allowing for a broader reach of our system.
• Skowhegan Wireless Network Changes - We decommissioned our wireless systems on the Skowhegan South Water Tank temporarily, as we work to improve the design and engineering of the system there.
• Network Expansion - We are currently expanding our network in a new region, stay tuned for this announcement! We are currently undergoing testing and hope to be active in this new region in the next few weeks.

News for 20 February 2007 - Skowhegan Town Hall cutover approaching

To our Skowhegan area wireless broadband service customers. The week of 2/19 we will be moving all our customers served from our Skowhegan operation center onto a new expanded bandwidth link. The exact cutover date will be forwarded by email or phone to all customers concerned. During the cut over process the Mainely Wired project team will be on constant stand by to attend to any issue that might arise. Please notify the team at once should an issue develop with your connection. Once the cut over has been completed all customers will experience a more secure, robust and faster connection. Thank you for choosing Mainely Wired as your broad band supplier.

To all our Swanville customers: We are happy to announce that we have started with our circuit upgrades at our Mid Coast operations. Today we will be cutting over our Swanville customers - connected to the Community Fuels base station - to the new bandwidth. We will try to keep service interruptions to a minimum. Please contact us immediately if you encounter adverse service conditions after 6 am Thursday 1/18. Thank you for choosing Mainely Wired as your broadband service provider.
Your Mainely Wired Service Team

News for 13 December 2006 - Mainely Wired network upgrades in 2007

Mainely Wired is happy to announce the start of a major upgrade program in both speed and reliability. All our network operations will undergo major upgrades in the New Year. This effort will proceed in stages starting with all our lines in Swanville, followed by the first Skowhegan circuit, then the Pittsfield circuits, then the remaining Skowhegan circuits, then Chebeague Island and finally our Searsport circuits. There will be short term service interruptions that we will try to time for the periods of least network traffic. We will make every attempt to notify all customers well in advance of planned service interruptions. All new circuits under construction will naturally have the new service level.

News for 26 October 2006 - Mainely Wired network upgrades

The amount of customers served from the Mt. Ephraim tower has been growing at a rapid rate. At the moment this tower is operating on a backhaul link from Swanville Community Fuels. For optimum service this backhaul can support up to 25 clients. We are getting close to this limit. To avoid quality of service issues we have contracted with Verizon to furnish a separate bandwidth backbone to Mt. Ephraim. They have been installing and testing this new circuit for 2 weeks. Completion has been promised for Friday, 27 October 2006. If this deadline is met and the new bandwidth has been accepted by us we will have to switch all of our customers to new IP addresses. Most of you will only have a slight amount of down time since we can access your modems remotely and make the necessary changes. For some more involved home network installations we may have to stop by and and reboot / reconfigure routers or computers. This will be a matter of 10 to 20 min. After that you will be surfing along with a stronger signal at higher speeds. Looking into the future we see a steady increase in the requests for services from both business and private customers at all of our locations. Verizon, acknowledging our rapid growth rate, has recently offered to upgrade its relationship with Mainely Wired to Business Corporate Service. We have finished negotiations and signed a contract for this service. Within 3 to 6 months Verizon will be installing brand new circuits to replace the old ones, with even more bandwidth. This change affects all our base station installations in Mid Maine, at the Mid Coast, at our Island services and at our wired operations at the counties and municipalities we supply with wired service. At this point you can choose to stay with your regular service at the service fee agreed to at installation or you can upgrade to the higher level of service at a slight increase in fees - about 7%. Once again there will be a slight interruption of service since new IP addresses are required for this service also. We will give you as much advance notice as possible before this cutover occurs. Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions and comments.
Thank you for using Mainely Wired as your internet service provider.

News for 6 October 2006 - Online credit card payment problems

Due to ongoing problems with our online credit card payment service we are suspending this operation temporarily. We are actively looking for a new service provider and hope to offer the service again within the next several weeks. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your patience. Your Mainely Wired service team.

News for 11 September 2006 - New Installation Moratorium

To all our present and potential customers. Due to a severe personnel shortage, Mainely Wired has been forced to declared a moratorium on new installations until September 15th. We are interviewing new personnel daily and hope to have the issue solved by the middle of September. We will complete all surveyed and approved installations on our order book but will not start new site surveys or installations until our backlogged installation requests and several other projects have been completed. We cannot provide the superior service Mainely Wired's customers are accustomed to if our team members become too stretched and fatigued. Thank you for your understanding and thank you for choosing Mainely Wired as your broadband supplier.

News for 16 August 2006 - Mainely Wired Services Town of Skowhegan

Mainely Wired is proud to announce that the Town of Skowhegan engaged Mainely Wired to service all of their Network, Server and Computer needs. In addition, Mainely Wired provides bandwidth to the Town for their critical public safety needs, town hall operations and all of their remote offices. Mainely Wired's broadband and computer service operations now include the Somerset County Sheriff's offices, the Towns of Skowhegan, Newport, Pittsfield, Hartland, St. Albans, Palmyra, Swanville, Frankfort, Searsport, Monroe and Chebeague Island. We are constantly expanding the reach of our networks and services. Please check our webpage regularly for updates on our constantly expanding wireless broadband service area.

News for 12 August 2006 - Mount Ephraim is online and active!

Mainely Wired is pleased to announce the successful start up of our second base station in the Mid Coast. Our new base station based on Mount Ephraim enables the vast expansion of our customer base for a 14 mile radius. Clients in the new service area are signing up rapidly to enjoy the benefit of broadband connectivity. Our engineering team is now starting scoping work for a new base station location on Mount Waldo. This location will greatly increase our service area - to Winterport, Hamden and beyond. We expect service to start in the late fall. We would like to thank all our new customers in our Mid Coast division for their support and we will strive to meet all expectations as we bring hi speed internet to many more rural locations on the Mid Coast

News for 18 July 2006 - Swanville Network Downtime Notification

Mainely Wired's Swanville operations will initiate a frequency change on Monday 24 July 2006 between 11 and 11:45 pm for all our customers. This will enable us to put our new relay station on Mt. Ephraim in operation so we can expand the reach of our service area significantly. Please ensure that the modem at your location is powered up during this time so we can access it remotely. If your modem is not powered up we will have to stop by and make the change at your location. This should be a 5 minute visit. Thank you to all valued customers for your patience during this timeframe as we work to improve the Mainely Wired network.

News for 17 July 2006 - To all Mainely Wired Customers

Mainely Wired would like to thank all our Swanville customers for their patience shown on Sunday 16 July 2006 as our bandwidth backbone supplier Verizon had to overcome some serious circuit provision issues. Verizon has been able to stabilize the circuit and normal service conditions are being re-implemented for all our Swanville network operations. Please call our technical support team at once if you are still experiencing network connection issues.

News for 16 July 2006 - To all Mainely Wired Customers

Microsoft has discontinued support for Windows 98, Windows 98 2nd edition and Windows ME as of 11 July 2006. Mainely Wired is urging all our customers to upgrade their systems to later versions of Windows so operations and service issues can easily be addressed by your computer service specialist or Mainely Wired personnel. Thank you for using Mainely Wired as your ISP provider.

News for 12 July 2006 - To all valued customers of Mainely Wired

We are in the process of improving our accounting system by partnering with a major accounting firm in upgrading all aspect of our financial operations. During this period there might be some billing issues that might impact individual customer accounts. Please contact us at once if an issue arises with your account. We or our new accounting partner will do our utmost to settle the issue immediately. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this transition period.

News for 22 June 2006 - Online credit card payments

LinkPoint, our online credit card payment service, has informed us that due to security considerations the browsers AOL, MSN and Earthlink cannot be used for online payments anymore. If you have problems paying online please use a different browser. Thank you!

Your Mainely Wired customer support team.

News for 15 June 2006 - To our valued Mid Maine area customers

Mainely Wired is continuing its infrastructure improvement program. After completing our internal upgrades - new routers, switches and bandwidth provider we are now tackling our external upgrades. Antennas, radios, cabling improvements/replacements and directional relocations are being implemented daily.

We appreciate your patience during this time. Unfortunately we cannot avoid some disruption in service during the duration of this effort. We had planned to complete this operation by mid June. Unfortunately, many of our external upgrades are weather dependent, and we cannot do outside installation changes during inclement weather. Please notify us at once at 207.322.9331 or 207.399.3590 of any service problems as we would like to overcome these problems as soon as possible.

Thanks again for your understanding and thanks for choosing Mainely Wired as your Internet Service Provider.

News for 2 June 2006 - Swanville Network Downtime Notification

The Swanville Network will be down for maintenance this monday, 5 June 2006, from 10 pm to midnight as we work on improving our network. Thank you for your patience during this timeframe.

News for 8 May 2006 - Swanville Promotional Pricing Ending Soon!

Our special introductory rate of $39.95 for Home customers and $45.95 for Business customers is coming to an end soon. Sign up now for hi-speed before it's too late! Our special promotional pricing comes to an end May 31rst, 2006. Be sure to order your new hi-speed internet connection before then to save more!

News for 1 May 2006 - Swanville Network Downtime Notification

The Swanville Network will be down for maintenance this wednesday, 3 May 2006, from 11 pm to midnight as we work on improving our network. Thank you for your patience during this timeframe.

News for 21 April 2006 - Swanville Town Hall joins the hi-speed internet age.

Mainely Wired is pleased to announce that the Swanville Town Hall is now connected to hi-speed internet. Town personnel will now be able to leave slow, unreliable dial up connections behind and complete their tasks faster and more efficiently. Mainely Wired's commitment to community service means that all fees are being waived for the Town Hall. Mainely Wired is pleased to be of service to the community that hosts its Mid Coast operations.

Regards,
Peter Petersen - CEO
Tim McDonald - President
Mainely Wired

News for 15 April 2006 - To all our Pittsfield, Newport, and Hartland area customers who are experiencing sporadic connection problems at this time. Mainely Wired is working around the clock with Verizon, our back bone supplier, to get this problem under control. We expect a solution shortly and will keep everyone continuously updated as to our progress.

Thank you for your patience in this difficult time.

News for 4 April 2006 - During the first week of operations after the successful start up of our base station, Mainely Wired was able to put 10 customers online in our service area. With the personnel available at the present time, we will be limited to installing 10 new customers each week. We are actively seeking and training additional personnel. If you have experience with internet service providers, field engineering, or feel confident in your skills, please contact us. In the meantime we ask our potential customers for patience - we will get around to you as soon as possible. Thank you very much for your great support of our effort to put Swanville on the road to hi speed broadband.

News for 21 March 2006 - Mainely Wired is pleased to announce that the new, wireless network constructed in Swanville has been verified and is now in full operations. Location signal checks are now in progress as well as installations at strategic locations. Swanville has now joined the hi speed internet community. Mainely Wired would like to thank all potential customers who have waited patiently as we constructed this network to serve the greater Swanville community.

Regards,
Peter Petersen - CEO and Senior Director
Tim McDonald - President, CTO, and Operating Director
Mainely Wired

News for 16 March 2006 - Mainely Wired is pleased to announce that our Swanville base station installation has been completed. The bandwidth has been connected, the signal is on the air and the system is being fine tuned. Signal testing and site surveying operations at various locations are underway and we expect to start installing at customer locations the week of March 20th. Mainely Wired thanks the Swanville area residents for their support of our efforts to provide hi speed internet service to the community.

Regards,
Peter Petersen - CEO and Senior Director
Tim McDonald - President, CTO, and Operating Director
Mainely Wired

News for 22 February 2006 - Skowhegan area cut over to new network starting today.

Mainely Wired is pleased to announce that the cut over to our newly installed, much more stable, routed circuit system will begin in the Skowhegan area today, Wednesday February 22nd. We are working to make this a seamless transition and our personnel will be monitoring the integrity of the network manually for 24 hrs. If a temporary outage should occur it we will be able to address it at once and keep service interruption to a minimum. After the successful cut over all customers in the Skowhegan area will have access to a more robust and stable state of art the wireless broadband network that is second to none in Maine.

Thank you for choosing Mainely Wired as your broadband provider.

News for 16 February 2006 - Mainely Wired adds online credit card payment acceptance to its services.

Mainely Wired customers will now be able to pay their bills online by using Visa or MasterCard. You may also choose to receive your bill by postal mail or by email. If you prefer to receive your bill by email, please send an email to support@mainelywired.com and your bill will be sent to your email address 5 days before the scheduled due date. To make an online payment, please visit our payment page. A receipt will be sent to your email address upon successful completion of the transaction.

Thank you for choosing Mainely Wired as your broadband provider.

News for 9 February 2006 - Mainely Wired Starts Major Network Upgrade

Mainely Wired is pleased to announce that the new management team in place since the beginning of the year is starting a major upgrade of all existing networks. Our goal is to maintain our position as the leading wireless broadband provider in Maine, now and in the future. All networks will be moved from switched to routed service through the installation of state-of-the art routing equipment. The new installations will give our customers a more robust and reliable performance envelope while allowing for seamless expansion of service. Service interruption during the transition period will be kept to a minimum and all planned outages will be communicated to all customers well in advance.

Thank you for choosing Mainely Wired as your broadband provider.

Tim McDonald - President, CTO and Operating Director
Peter Petersen - CEO and Senior Director

News for 2 February 2006 - Mainely Wired adds new service

Mainely Wired customers now have the opportunity to establish email accounts on the Mainely Wired system. Private accounts can establish 2 free email addresses. Additional private addresses can be added at a cost of $1.99/month. Business accounts can establish 4 free email addresses. Additional business addresses can be added at a cost of $2.49/month. Please email tristan@mainelywired.com to get your accounts set up.

Mainely Wired's service team is continuously working to deliver more value to its customers. Please watch our news bulletins for additional service enhancements. If you have any suggestions or comments about our service do not hesitate to contact us.

News - Updates for all interested customers

Mainely Wired Waldo has aquired a substantial interest in Mainely Wired, its former parent company, and will now assume the parents name. The global headquarters of Mainely Wired will remain in Skowhegan and service the Mid Maine and Northern Maine areas. The Swanville office will service the Mid Coast, Down East and off shore areas. Due to the protracted negotiations and management changes our original Swanville installation schedule has slipped slightly. We are now back on track and expect to start network support installations the week of Feb. 6 with service start up expected in Swanville the week of Feb. 20. We apologize to all of our potential customers for this delay.

Mainely Wired website now operational and under construction. Please bear with us as we continue to add news, features, and content to our website.

Mainely Wired will partner with WontonGold for website development and service. WontonGold will also supply domain name services and registration for all Mainely Wired customers. For more information about our partner please visit their website at http://wontongold.com

News for 24 Jan 2006

Our broadband partner Verizon has started design and installation of our back bone connection. Broad cast antennas are expected to arrive in Swanville on February 6th.

Tristan Petersen has been appointed IT consultant and webmaster for Mainely Wired. Tristan is a recent graduate from RIT and holds a BS in EE with a minor in ME from that institution. Tristan can be reached at tristan@mainelywired.com

For installation info or questions please call Tim at 399-3590 or email him at tim@mainelywired.com. You can also reach Peter at 338-6530 or peter@mainelywired.com

News for 27 Jan 2006

Please check our website mainelywired.com for continuous updates and progress reports.