Internet customers in Rico are facing uncertainty after Farmers Telephone Co. announced it would no longer provide DSL internet to the town.

Farmers sent letters to Direct Communications, the town’s telephone company, and Rico customers at the end of December announcing it would end internet service to the area on Feb. 1, said Brigham Griffin, marketing manager for Direct Communications.

“We were a little bit blindsided by this,” Griffin said.

Direct Communications received notice only shortly before customers were notified.

In Rico, Farmers has 127 active DSL costumers and 11 who are disconnected for the season, he said.

Farmers told customers in its letter it was a business decision not to continue service.

Farmers had provided DSL to Rico Telephone Co. customers for many years before Direct Communications bought Rico Telephone last spring.

Farmers, a small company based in Pleasant View, continued providing DSL service after Rico Telephone Co. was purchased, Griffin said.

After the announcement, Direct Communications is trying to make sure service is not interrupted, but the company needs access to a circuit to provide service, Griffin said.

“We are talking to Farmers about purchasing that circuit. If everything goes smoothly, we are hoping to have it set up by February,” Griffin said.

A Farmers representative directed all questions to Direct Communications.

Direct Communications could also use CenturyLink fiber optic line and equipment to provide service, he said.

Home modems and lines will stay in place during the transition, he said.

“We are going to do everything we can to make sure the internet is not interrupted,” he said.

Direct Communications is based in Rockland, Idaho, and it provides internet services to all the other small, rural towns in Idaho and Utah it serves.

Compared with other areas the company serves, there is a dearth of wholesale internet options in the Rico area, and that is a problem, he said.

“We need more partners out there,” he said.

The Southwest Colorado Council of Governments’ Executive Director Miriam Gillow-Wiles is working with Direct Communications, the town of Rico and Colorado Governor’s Office of Information and Technology to make sure that the town, including the government, Rico Elementary School and the residents, do not lose internet service.

“Sometimes a phone call from the right person to the right entity can help move things along,” she said.

She is working on both short- and long-term solutions for the area.

mshinn@durangoherald.com