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Little River draws big service divide(Daily Oklahoman, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Aug. 27--CLOUDY -- Charlotte Hannah didn't move to the scenic mountains of southern Pushmataha County for telephone service, which is a good thing. Hannah has none. No landline. No cellular reception. Nothing. Hannah lives among a pocket of six families who share her fate, at least one of whom has lived the past 19 years without any landline service. They reside on the east side of Little River, where neighbors to the west playfully refer to them as "those people across the river." Area is in no-man's land Folks to the west have room to be playful. AT&T provides them with telephone service -- a line that ends where Little River flows. Hannah and her neighbors live in a remote territory that falls under the jurisdiction of the Pine Telephone Company in Broken Bow. It's an area that is a modern-day no-man's land for telephone customers because of an entanglement of issues dealing with costs, right-of-way access and territorial rights. "I tell people all the time I don't have telephone service," Hannah said. "At first, they think I'm joking. Then I tell them I'm serious. Then they think I'm lying. But it's true. We have no telephone service. Most people take that for granted. "I think we're the last people in Oklahoma without a phone." Amazingly, they aren't. Steve Wilt, a public utility research analyst for the state Corporation Commission, said there still are "pockets of rural residents" statewide who live without telephone service. No one knows how many Oklahomans fall into that category, although the number is thought to be minuscule. Hannah finds no comfort in the fact she isn't alone. For five years, Hannah has lobbied for help from anyone who might listen. She's contacted the Pine Telephone Company, the state Corporation Commission, AT&T, Gov. Brad Henry, Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin, her state representatives and even the Federal Communications Commission in Washington. All to no avail. By law, the Pine Telephone Company must provide service to Hannah and her neighbors, said Eric Seguin, the state Corporation Commission's chief of telecommunications. But there's a hitch. "The company has a responsibility to provide service, but not for free," Seguin explained. "Often times, that means the customer might incur some costs." In this case, the cost would be astronomical. Pine General Manager Jerry Whisenhunt claims it will cost $1.5 million to run fiber-optic telephone lines the 12 miles necessary to reach the residents on the east side of Little River because of the rugged terrain. But the company is reluctant to make that kind of investment on six customers. Another option would be the installation of a microwave tower for $150,000 atop a mountain and linking each customer with overhead lines. "That's feasible," Whisenhunt said. "But there are only a few spots where that would work, and we can't get the land. Believe me, we're trying. I feel for these people, but right now, they're just hanging out there." AT&T, formerly SBC Communications, is another hope. "We'd be happy to work out an agreement where we could make a swap with SBC for the territory," Whisenhunt said. "But they'd have to cross Little River, and that might not be feasible for them. So what else do you do?" At a local convenience store, Shirley and Donnie Gray experience similar frustration. But their frustrations reach their cash register. "Because we don't have a phone, we can't accept credit cards or debit cards," Shirley said. "A lot of times we'll have customers load up items on the counter and then slap down a credit card. When I tell them we can't accept credit cards, they start putting the items back and walk out. "It's tough." How do the Grays reach the outside world? They drive five miles to the top of Devil's Backbone Mountain and pray for cellular telephone reception. "It's pretty frustrating just making a doctor's appointment," said Barbara Williams, another neighbor without a telephone. "You have to go up on the mountain to call on a cell phone. Seems like you can never reach them, and when they call back, they can't reach you. "That's just the way it is out here." Copyright (c) 2006, The Daily Oklahoman Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |