At the end of the second quarter, the cable ISP had over 900,000 subscribers. Today a one person install team, which does both the RF and the PC, work can install between three and four customers in an eight-hour day. Preventing problems Road Runner believes the software eliminates preventable installation problems. About 5 percent of installs fail because the customer s PC doesn t meet the minimum requirements. The installation may go successfully, but then performance on the PC can slow when surfing the net.
Customers view that as a performance issue and call into the national help desk.
Also, installers may think they ve loaded the software properly, but they haven t verified that the applications work. This is the single biggest fault we have with installers today without this product. Later that night, the customer tries to access e-mail only to find that it wasn t set up properly. Austin, Texas, affiliate has been testing the software for about 10 months, and roughly 55-60 percent of orders are now self installs, reported Temlak. Across the entire network, self installs are running about 25 percent with the Road Runner Connect CD, because the major affiliates haven t launched yet, or are using the CD to train their technicians.