DAHLONEGA, Ga. – Lumpkin County Government is done with Windstream. Following complaints that ranged from high charges to internet connectivity issues, the Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to replace Windstream as its phone and DSL service provider with North Georgia Network.

Commissioners say the county’s contract IT administrator has worked with Windstream and has conducted numerous tests based upon the information provided by Windstream and has discovered that even during the night or early in the morning when there is limited usage of the county’s network, there is an issue with the bandwidth and the ability to have a stable connection.

There are also severe issues with the services on Red Oak Flats Road that cause the phone and internet connectivity to drop as much as eight times a day.

In December 2018, the county received a bill for over $11,000 in long distance charges for calls routed through AT&T for long distance.  This same issue occurred in July and Windstream provided a credit for those charges but failed to issue a credit for the December charges.

In searching for a solution to the network and phone issues being faced by the county, staff asked its IT administrator to reach out to NGN to see if they could provide services to the county.  After several meetings it was determined that NGN could provide not only internet service to the county but PRI/phone service to the majority of our facilities.

Lumpkin County currently pays Windstream $8,500 a month for phone service, (ten thousand minutes of long distance) and internet service. NGN can provide more dedicated internet, the dedicated IP addresses needed, the PRI functions for the phone and ninety-two thousand long distance minutes for $5,550 a month.

There is a one-time cost of $5,140.  This would be recouped in approximately two months.  The county would not be able to move every phone line as NGN is not in all areas but would be able to move the bulk and save approximately $3,000 a month. The project would be completed in a three-phase approach.  The internet connection would be upgraded at the Justice Center and Administration Building.

Next, the phone system would be migrated followed by the off-site locations that could be served by NGN.

The upgrade in the internet to a more stable platform is also expected to provide some relief to operations on Red Oak Flats until such time the phone system can be fully migrated.

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