BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"If you had any kind of power outages or internet outages they would not take any type of excuse or notations," said a father and resident of Hillsboro, Alan Singleton.
Singleton says he was let go a few weeks ago.
His work-from-home job tightened up on their rules asking all employees to be ready to service customers, and Singleton says for him, it became difficult because of difficult internet.
"There were times where the internet was out, and then the AT&T would reach out and say, 'Hey, there's an outage' — but either way, the job did not take that excuse," Singelton said.
Singleton, a father of two, was fired from his job — he's struggling to make ends meet and working odd jobs to keep a roof over their heads.
Internet interruptions aren't surprising to the City of Hillsboro — they've recognized the issue and started working on plans to improve their internet services.
The Chamber of Commerce director of Hillsboro provided 25 News with this statement:
"Increased connectivity empowers businesses, builds stronger communities, expands health care and education options, enables more efficient farming operations, and as a growing city, we are excited about the fiber addition here."
The chamber said they've been in contact with rise fiber internet services and are in the final stages of signing a deal — one official says investing in proper internet services are essential.
Callie St. John, Marketing Development Manager of Rise Fiber shared some insight with 25 News.
"Working consistent internet is part of infrastructure moving forward, so many people are looking for those remote jobs and students are needing tutoring and farmers need telehealth," St. John said.
"The internet is the absolutely center of that."
For Singleton, the fight is already lost because of poor internet service.
"I was not fully able to pay August and not September is coming around due as well," he said.
If you would like to support Singleton, click here.
