Coyote TV - High Desert Advocate

        Wendover residents could have another option for phone service besides land lines to the two local companies or cell phones, said Eddie Cox, President and General Manager of CentraCom, the local cable television provider.
    According to Cox the company could offer phone service for its cable television subscribers as early as this summer along with high speed internet and of course cable television.
    “We will be revamping the entire system beginning this spring,” Cox said. “the first thing we are going to do is to replace the five dishes we have behind the western motel with on large modern dish at our other lot nearer the center of town. then we plan to refit the cable system so that it will be capable for two way rather than one way reception.”
    That upgrade Cox explained will allow for the system to offer not only high speed internet but also telephone service to its customers.
    CentraCom purchased the Wendover and Ely cable television system last year and began almost immediately to update both systems 1990’s technology.
    Bought and sold six times over the last 12 years, the cable systems in both towns were in desperate need of up grade and have lost hundreds of subscribers to satellite television.
    Unlike Precis Communications or any of its predecessors, CentraCom, did not begin as a cable television provider but rather as a phone company for Fairview, Utah.
    And while the previous owners of the system promised upgrades to the system, CentraCom has been the only one to deliver.
    The telephone service itself could give the company a strong leg up on the local land line services in Wendover because it would al but eliminate pricey long distance charges.
    “We will be using Voice Over Internet Protocol,” Cox explained. “Something like Vonage but with much better quality. Our customers will be able to phone anywhere for one low monthly fee.”
    Isolated by more than 100 miles in any direction, Wendover residents usually average much higher phone bills than their urban neighbors. And while land line service is expensive cell phone service is even worse. With services divided by a state line expensive roaming charges are more of the rule rather than the exception.