There's no downtime in a hospital,'' Weder said. The system also has higher bandwidth that it ever had before, meaning it can share patient files, some of which can be very large, Weder said. The system has two hospitals, a big outpatient facility, free-standing medical centers and also a number of physician and specialty physician practices, she said. Southeast Georgia Health System spokeswoman Jacqueline Weder said the installation of ATC fiber began in the summer of 2014 and by spring of 2015 all of the system's operations were connected including the hospital at its Camden campus in St. He also said that when the health center needs to expand an operation, "they're out in front of us."īondurant said the hospital reached out to major national companies, but couldn't get a response. There was some federal money to fund some of the rural connectivity, Bondurant said. Meadows moved into the new 57-bed hospital about five years ago, and it has 16 physician practices from Lyons to Dublin, a wellness center and other operations, Bondurant said. "Not only are we completely connected, they enabled us to move from the old hospital to the new hospital without any disruption of service." "Basically, all of facilities, doctors' offices and everything else are on one network,'' he said. Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia wouldn't be able to operate as efficiently today if it weren't for ATC Broadband, said Chuck Bondurant, the hospital's chief information officer.
"Think of the hospital as the anchor store in a mall,'' Solomon said. Then ATC Broadband began installing more fiber-optic lines, first to hospitals starting in Alma and ultimately to Douglas, Hazlehurst, Baxley, Waycross, Vidalia, Brunswick, Jesup and St. "We reasoned those people would pay more for internet,'' and appreciated the better quality, he said. The company's first work with fiber optic was extending lines from Blackshear to residences at the Okefenokee Golf Club across the Satilla River from Waycross where there were 150 houses on cable. They ask for more every year, and that's why rates go up, Solomon said. They started with a nickel a customer, then it's a dime, now they want a dollar,'' he said. "The used to be happy to let us have their signals free.
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As websites began offering more, however, including pictures and video, the phone lines didn't have the capacity to carry the digital signals.ĪTC bought cable TV companies in Blackshear and Baxley and, over time, Solomon learned there's no money in cable TV because the networks, ESPN, CNN and other providers want all they can get. He moved Alma Telephone into internet service with dial-up then DSL under ATC. "My age group dies off,'' the 68-year-old Solomon said, "the phone gets cut off and the young ones don't even think about getting one installed." Then the cellphone business started growing, and, as the quality improved, people began dropping their wire line services to the point Alma Telephone now has half the customers it once had. Indeed, in those years companies called offering the same services for less over lines and switching equipment they leased from Bell South, Alma Telephone and other former phone company monopolies. Other people could come in and cut your throat using your stuff.'' "We didn't know if it was going to put us out of business or not. "The Telecommunications Act said imbedded phone companies have to rent their infrastructure to other companies at a fair rate,'' Solomon said. He walked away from his thriving practice, however, because there were changes coming that could doom the business unless someone changed the services Alma Telephone provided. Solomon said then he had intended to continue practicing law and just walk from his office to Alma Telephone a few times a day, if needed, to sign something. Lawyer Teddy Solomon has been running the company since 1997 when owner Jack Bennett passed away, leaving his family as the owners and his friend Solomon as the trustee. A company offshoot, ATC Broadband, has underground fiber-optic lines running all the way to St.
doesn't tell the whole truth: Neighbors serving neighbors for 75 years.Īnd indeed the phone company has been in business that long, but its service area now extends well past it neighbors in Bacon County where it ran phone lines to banks, restaurants and blueberry farmers, among others. | A sign in the window at Alma Telephone Co.
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