The Associated Press reports, and Stop the Cap! can confirm AT&T is allowing some of their long-standing customers to switch back to unlimited data plans, even if they gave them up after the company introduced cheaper, limited data plan options.

After our regular reader “PreventCAPS” sent word AT&T was relenting on some requests for unlimited data plans, we spent some time late this afternoon with Jim Scott, an AT&T customer from New Rochelle, N.Y. as he navigated his way through AT&T customer service trying to get back to an unlimited data plan.

“When AT&T offered customers new, cheaper data plans, I never knew those replaced the unlimited option and I thought I could save some money downgrading to a cheaper data option,” Scott told us.

But Scott discovered the plan allowances he got didn’t save him money at all, because he exceeded them.

“I am a contractor and I spend all day on my phone moving large image files and even video of work being done on the properties I manage,” Scott says.  “Two gigabytes didn’t cut it.”

Scott tried to switch back to his unlimited plan this summer, but was told he could not, as it was no longer offered.

Enter Verizon Wireless, which is keeping its unlimited service plan at least temporarily as it introduces the Verizon iPhone.  Verizon’s imminent iPhone has become leverage for customers who want to turn the tables on AT&T.

“Thanks to AT&T’s greed, I had already made the decision to dump them for Verizon when my contract ends in February,” Scott says. “AT&T works fine in this part of New York, and the only reason I am leaving is because they don’t have a wireless data plan that met my needs.”

We worked with Scott and suggested he threaten to cancel his AT&T service and walk his future business to Verizon Wireless.  We asked him to make sure to tell AT&T the reason he was planning to cancel his service was because of the end of unlimited data option.

On a three-way call with AT&T customer service, AT&T promptly offered to restore Scott’s access to its discontinued unlimited data plan.

“All I had to say was ‘Verizon’ and ‘iPhone’ and the customer service representative immediately starting clacking away on her keyboard, and I had my unlimited data plan restored in less than five minutes,” Scott said.

The AP reports the key to success is having been a previous subscriber to AT&T’s unlimited data option.  New customers who signed up after June 2010 never had that option, and AT&T has refused to offer unlimited data to these customers.

Because newer customers are under relatively new contracts, actually following through on a threat to drop AT&T is an expensive proposition with early termination fees still well into the hundreds of dollars.  For those closer to a penalty-free exit, AT&T recognizes many of these customers already have one foot out the door.

Jose Argumedo, of Brentwood, N.Y., told the AP he and a friend were switched to an unlimited plan recently after they called AT&T’s customer service. Both have iPhone 4s, and previously had earlier iPhone models.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel wouldn’t confirm the option to return to an unlimited plan.

“We handle customers and their situations individually, and we’re not going to discuss specifics,” he said.

Scott says he is comfortable with his iPhone, but getting back an unlimited data plan was more important than the handset.

“If I can use the iPhone as leverage against these guys, why not?” Scott says.  “They’ve had me under their thumb for more than six months now with overlimit fees — now the table is turned.”

Stop the Cap! advises customers who want to follow in Scott’s footsteps get organized before calling:

1. Be sure to note the number of years you have been an AT&T customer;
2. Explain you used to have unlimited data and now want that plan back;
3. Tell them you are prepared to drop AT&T, even at the risk of a cancellation fee, if they don’t restore your access to the unlimited data plan.

If a representative is unable to make the switch, or doesn’t have information about how to switch you back, ask for a supervisor or hang up and call back.

The Vancouver Sun‘s Gillian Shaw reports consumers in British Columbia, Alberta, and beyond are about to pay more for their Internet service, and consumers across Canada are not pleased.

Shaw, who isn’t affiliated with Shaw-the-cable-company, notes changes by a federal regulator could mean the end of unlimited broadband service across the country.

Steve Anderson, founder and national coordinator of the Vancouver-based OpenMedia.ca., which also fights for Net Neutrality protections in the country, thinks “usage-based billing,” a core component of Internet Overcharging, has struck a nerve.

“Bell, Rogers, and Shaw have been given the green light to determine how we pay for Internet,” Anderson tells Shaw.  “If this decision goes unchecked, broadband is about to cost much more for Canadians.”

Anderson tells the newspaper more than 40,000 consumers have signed the group’s petition opposing the pricing schemes, and many Canadians are taking the matter to their member of Parliament.

“It is a really interesting grassroots community that has sprung up around this. Basically they said enough is enough. They are drawing a line in the sand and saying ‘we are not going to take this anymore, this is where it stops.’”

Shaw also talked to Stop the Cap! about the pricing schemes:

“We have consumers who pay good money to receive broadband service, now they have to think twice about everything they do online in case they expose themselves to over-limit fees,” said Phillip Dampier.

“How many people measure how much they are using online?” said Dampier. “If you have kids that are teenagers and you are sharing an Internet connection, can you imagine the battles when the bill arrives – ‘Who ran up the bill?’

“If you thought cellphone bill shock was bad, imagine you have two teenagers living at home who are on the Internet all the time.”

Dampier said usage explanations by companies, such as Shaw’s graphic that shows 15 gigabytes of data equals 105,000 emails are useless for the average consumer.

“Shaw says these are generous; that’s all nice, but nobody needs to send out 105,000 emails. But what they do need to do now that Netflix has come to Canada is video streaming and you can blow through these usage limits a lot faster using online video.

“If you have Shaw’s lite service you can get through four movies tops, that’s it — no more emails for you, no web pages, or you can, but watch out, you’ll get a big bill at the end of the month.”

If you use Verizon’s forthcoming iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot, be prepared to pay $20 a month for a maximum of 2GB of usage per month.

Many smartphones have built-in capabilities to serve as temporary hotspots to let you use your Wi-Fi capable equipment on Verizon’s wireless 3G network.  But that doesn’t mean Verizon will let you use it for free.

The so-called “personal hotspot” enables up to five Wi-Fi equipped devices to share your connection, but not too much.  If you exceed your 2GB plan allowance, the overlimit fee is a striking $20 per gigabyte.  Those fees come in addition to your usual Verizon voice and data plan charges.

Verizon is not singling out the iPhone for the expensive data plan.  The pricing is equivalent to what Verizon charges for a similar service on its other smartphones, according to Brenda Raney, Verizon Wireless’ executive director of corporate communications.

Ft. Wayne, Indiana

Outrage over enormous price increases for Frontier’s fiber optic television service in Indiana are being met with little more than a shrug of the shoulders by one company executive, who seemed to dismiss as an afterthought the state-of-the-art FiOS network it acquired from Verizon.

Frontier Communications’ president of its Midwest division, Don Banowetz, has been making the rounds with Fort Wayne-area reporters over news the phone company intends to boost prices for its FiOS TV service by $30 a month for most customers.

But Banowetz has done little to defend the price increases or the fiber network the company acquired with its purchase of landlines from Verizon.

“Look, we bought the whole company, right? All the assets. The FiOS part was part of that, so it was part of the deal,” said Banowetz.  “We couldn’t ride the previous arrangement. So in essence, it was what it was.”

WANE-TV reporter Aishah Hasnie seemed stunned with Banowetz’s response, finally asking what customers should do if they can’t afford the rate increases.

“Get DirecTV,” came the reply.

Starting February 18th, customers who subscribe to a FiOS TV basic package will see their rates go by up $12 per month. Customers who subscribe to other FiOS TV packages will see a $30 increase. The increase does not affect customers under a price protection plan.

That kind of price increase would normally provoke blanched faces in a corporate boardroom over fears of a mass exodus of customers.  But not Frontier.

“The FiOS TV part of our business is actually a very small part of our business. It’s about three percent of our revenues,” said Banowetz.

But Frontier’s satellite package, pitched as an alternative, brings plenty of tricks, traps and other hidden fees inside the box.  In addition to signing a two-year service commitment with DirecTV, customers also have to sign a three-year “price protection agreement” with the phone company, which is another way of saying “contract.”  The total price adds up:

• Customers opting for Frontier’s “free TV” promotion will face a three-year contract term with a $400 early cancellation fee;
• Frontier’s satellite TV promotion has a three-year contract term with a $300 early cancellation fee;
• “Care and handling” fees amounting to $69.99 apply to the “free TV” offer;
• A $34.99 Frontier “video setup fee” applies to customers getting satellite service from the phone company;
• DirecTV requires customers to pass a credit check and sign a contract with a 24 month commitment;
• If you change any aspect of your programming package, you may forfeit the “free service” offered as part of the promotion.

In northwest Washington state, Frontier’s rate increases are alienating the company with one member of the state’s congressional delegation.

U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) sent a letter to Frontier complaining about the huge rate hikes, telling the company it needs to find better alternatives for many of his constituents who cannot install a satellite dish.

“Folks in Northwest Washington are concerned about the future of cable service offered through Frontier Communications, and rightly so,” said Rep. Larsen. “I am calling on Frontier to offer consumers better and more affordable options for cable service in the region.”

Rep. Larsen’s letter to Frontier Communications:

Dear Mr. Mason:

I am writing to express concerns that I share with many of my constituents in Northwest Washington about Frontier’s plans for cable service in our region. The Everett Herald recently published an article, “Switch to a Dish or pay more, Frontier tells FIOS customers,” that highlights some of the problems that people in Northwest Washington have with Frontier’s announcement that it will alter the existing framework of its fiber-optic television service. Specifically, Frontier’s decision to offer its customers a choice between continuing with their current FIOS television service—with a rate increase of 46 percent or switching their cable television service to the satellite provider DirecTV.

I am concerned with Frontier’s decision to substantially raise its cable television rates for its existing customers in the Pacific Northwest. Last September, Frontier Communications Chief Executive Maggie Wilderotter was quoted in The Oregonian newspaper stating that Frontier would distinguish itself from larger cable companies by holding down prices for its customers. I find it troubling that less than six months later Frontier is dramatically raising its cable television rates.

Additionally, it is problematic that Frontier has not offered an adequate alternative to those customers who live in apartment complexes where the installation of satellite dishes is prohibited and therefore cannot take advantage of the option to switch their cable service to DirecTV. — Rick Larsen, United States Representative, Washington State, 2nd District

Stop the Cap! reader John says he has sent a letter to CEO Maggie Wilderotter protesting the rate hikes and imploring the company to find a programming co-op to join.  Smaller providers need not pay “rack prices” for cable programming.  Municipal providers, family owned companies, and small independent cable operators have enjoyed substantial programming discounts through group buying power.  Frontier apparently is trying to negotiate for video programming on its own, a fatal mistake that has brought on this month’s rate hike.

If you want to help educate Frontier about how to run their business properly, here is their contact information:

Frontier Communications Corporation
3 High Ridge Park
Stamford, CT 06905-1390
Phone: 203-614-5600
Fax: 203-614-4602
Frontier@frontiercorp.com

When writing or calling, don’t forget to tell them to abandon their Internet Overcharging schemes — no usage caps or limits on Frontier broadband, or you will take your business somewhere else.

WANE-TV in Fort Wayne delves into Frontier Frustration as angry customers react to news of enormous rate increases.  (2 minutes)

A Montreal blogger experienced the wrath of some Videotron employees when he casually snapped a photo of their recently-remodeled store in the Carrefour Agrignon.

Elias Makos shares the crazy story of his experience last November:

Walking to the Best Buy, I noticed the Videotron store, which has recently been remodeled as the company focuses more and more on its new cell phone services. Not only was the store remodeled, but there was a ratio of about 6 employees per customer in the store.  This was hilarious to me, and even more so when I think about how Videotron’s parent company, Quebecor, has locked out 253 Journal de Montreal employees for almost two years now. Apparently the company can’t pay for journalism but can afford an army of numbskulls selling cell phone contracts.

So I took out my phone and snapped one picture of the store from about 20 feet away. Put my phone back in my pocket and walked to Best Buy. About a minute later, I feel a hand on my back.

The photo worth a thousand punches to the face. (Courtesy: Elias Makos)

“Why did you take a picture of me?”

I was floored. “What?” I said, realizing that it was a Videotron employee from the store. He asked the same question again. I looked at him, flabbergasted that he even cared. He looked very nervous, like he knew he and his store was incompetent. He told me not to take pictures of his store, or else. I stared at him, realized I didn’t have to tell him a thing, and walked away, although not before I must have gave him the most confused look in my life.

I get to Best Buy, walk to the games section (major cutie working there today!) and found several new copies of both games. I was happy. I picked both games up. Then, out of nowhere, this guy approaches me.

“If you take another photo of my store, I’m going to punch you.”

Minutes later, the mall’s security guards approached Makos demanding he delete the photos, claiming taking photographs inside the mall violates mall policies.

Makos’ story turned into a bigger story on CBC Radio, with company officials trading accusations with Makos over whether the public has a right to snap pictures of its stores.

Foolishly, Videotron didn’t learn the cardinal rules of good public relations — strong-arming a member of the public and reflexively taking the side of the goon-employees who subsequently stalked Makos inside the mall will never turn out well no matter how you defend it.

CBC Radio Montreal talks with area blogger Elias Makos, who related his ridiculous encounter with some bored (and boorish) Videotron employees at the local mall who were more than a little camera shy. (12 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip, or you can download the clip and listen later.

http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WFMZ Allentown Comcast NBC Universal Merger May Impact Comcast Customers 1-19-11.flv

Now that the FCC has given the green light to Comcast’s merger with NBC-Universal, the headquarters of Comcast is moving to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.

While Comcast is moving on up, customers’ bills may soon follow.

Critics warn Comcast’s standing as the leading Internet Service Provider combined with its unprecedented power over programming could change the face of broadband Internet, particularly where online video is involved.

Comcast’s efforts to protect its cable business could lead to additional fees for broadband customers who seek to use the Internet to watch programming they used to get on cable-TV.

WFMZ-TV in Allentown, not too far from Comcast’s old headquarters in Philadelphia, reports.  (2 minutes)

Gary McCallum, a Shaw customer in Edmonton, Alberta, has received word his broadband service is about to get more expensive — a lot more expensive.

“Holy crap, it’s like text messaging [bill shock] all over again when your broadband bill arrives and you are now looking at hundreds of dollars instead of the $40 or $50 you used to pay,” McCallum told CTV News.

McCallum, and other designated “heavy users,” are receiving letters in the mail from Shaw notifying them they have been exceeding the company’s declining usage limits imposed on its broadband service.  If they exceed the limits again, they may be subject to penalty fees of as much as $2 per gigabyte.

“I’m upset about the backdoor tactics,” McCallum complains.  “They keep it secret and then lambaste you later.”

Most Shaw customers will be forced to confine their usage to 60GB per month, the limit on the company’s most popular broadband plan.  If they don’t, after some warning, they’ll pay a stiff fine.  Just 20GB of overlimit usage will more than double the average customer’s broadband bill, currently around $37 a month.

A house full of teenagers watching Netflix or downloading files could cost far more than that.

Company officials deny the potential revenue bonanza is unjustified.

Customers who use more will pay more, admits Terry Medd, vice-president of operations for Shaw Communications in Calgary.

“It’s video over the Internet that’s driving a lot of this cost,” he said. However, most Shaw Internet customers won’t hit their caps, Medd claims, suggesting it should affect fewer than 10 per cent of customers.

“The average user consumed about one-third of what the cap is. In other words, we’ve set the caps at three times the average usage. For the average user, there’s no concern here,” Medd said.

However, Shaw recently reduced their usage caps on virtually all of their Internet plans, making it more likely customers will be snagged by overlimit fees.

Some customers want to know what they will get if they use far less than their plan allowance.

Don McGregor believes Shaw’s plan to charge Internet users for the data they use is fair and equitable, so long as those who use less than the allowance get a break on their bills.

“Shaw should plan on refunding fees for any use of data below the contracted amount,” the Edmonton resident wrote in a letter to the editor published in the Edmonton Journal.  “Since 90 per cent of Shaw’s subscribers use less than the full GB capacity they pay for, I am sure these subscribers’ refund cheques are in the mail.”

Don, like other Canadians, is about to learn Internet Overcharging is never about fairness or saving customers money.  It’s about charging customers more for the same service they used to receive for less, without any improvements.  ISPs will not provide true “usage pricing” for consumers because it would slash revenue from their broadband service.

But western Canadians need not be victims of Shaw’s overcharging.  Telus, which sells landline-based DSL service in British Columbia and Alberta says it has upgraded its facilities to accommodate usage demands and won’t expose customers to overlimit fee bill shock.

Telus offers a way out of Shaw's Money Party hangover

Although Telus’ website does show usage limits, company officials claim they are rarely enforced, and not at the subscriber’s expense.

Telus could make a significant dent in Shaw’s customer base by dropping them altogether, which will save the phone company from these kinds of  silly legal gymnastics in their FAQ:

Why do you call your service unlimited, when my monthly usage is limited?
We refer to TELUS High Speed as being unlimited because you get unlimited hours of monthly access.

If you do not want to play Shaw’s Internet Overcharging game, perhaps spending time with a new Xbox 360 would be better?  Telus is giving them away to qualified new customers signing up for service.

CTV News in Edmonton informs Alberta’s Shaw customers their broadband service could get a lot more expensive.  (2 minutes)

Knology's Shakedown in Lawrence

Pesky facts have a way of getting in the middle of silly marketing campaigns.  Knology of Kansas (actually Georgia) has run into this problem in a big way with its glitzy, carefully-crafted welcome website KnologyKnows.

Some of the company’s facts are uncoordinated.

Lawrence blogger Joe Davis sure noticed:

Knology put up a new website to help build their brand in Lawrence, Kansas. In big capital letters, they write:

Allow us to introduce ourselves. We’re Knology, the new (115-year-old) kid on the block.

Sounds eerily familiar to the beginning of “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones.  Trust me… I have no sympathy for the Devil (in this case, a non-local company), also known as Knology. Their website is called KnologyKnows.com. But considering how many “facts” they’ve put out this past week that have been wrong, they really don’t know.

http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Sunflower Broadband is Now Knology.flv

Knology’s opening welcome video to residents of Lawrence, Kansas has some fact-checking problems. (1 minute)

Davis caught a fact-checking lapse in the company’s introductory video, which claims the world record for handshakes was 13,372.  Oops.  In 2002, while campaigning for office, soon-to-be Gov. Bill Richardson set a world record for the most number of handshakes in an eight-hour period: 13,392.

The only thing Knology has been good at so far in Lawrence is shaking down their customers with Internet Overcharging schemes.  The company has plenty of money to invest in promoting itself, but has so far retained Sunflower Broadband’s costly usage limits and overlimit fees.

Knology hasn’t been around for 115 years either — a company it bought out was.  The Interstate and Valley Telephone Company was one of many independent phone companies created to serve areas AT&T dismissed as rural backwaters not worthy of their service.  Knology itself has only been around since 1994, owned by ITC Holding Company — the people who also brought you Mindspring, a defunct Internet Service Provider sold to Earthlink one month before the dot.com crash.

Did you know Lawrence omits several states?

Davis is also unimpressed with the company’s sell-out of its customer support staff, many of whom will lose their jobs as part of the company’s “rightsizing” initiative.

For Davis, first impressions mean a lot, and Knology is doing themselves no favors.  Some of their other trivia isn’t always accurate, either:

This “fact” is told to anyone who first comes to Lawrence. However, it is wrong. Truth is, 14 states are missing from the Lawrence street grid. The first thing I did when I was told this in 2006 was to find where Connecticut street was located. The funny thing is… Of the 36 state streets in Lawrence, Georgia is not included. Knology is based out of Georgia. Whoops.

Davis says Knology has turned Sunflower’s well-regarded Twitter customer support account into an automated marketing spambot, spewing out continuous tweets telling customers to enter its giveaway and visit its newly branded website.

Stop the Cap! reader Brian, also from Lawrence, agrees with Davis.

“Knology has no concept of the truth in their marketing campaign. This is a scary test of things to come. Fortunately, we just switched to AT&T’s U-verse.”

Perhaps Knology should learn from the ghost of Mindspring, which used to have legendary customer service and a list of:

By filling out Knology's survey, you can give the company a piece of your mind over its Internet Overcharging schemes and possibly win this 32" Samsung flat panel TV.

The 14 Deadly Sins of Mindspring (a/k/a “the ways that we can be just like everybody else”)

1. Give lousy service- busy signals, disconnects, downtime, and ring no answers.
2. Rely on outside vendors who let us down.
3. Make internal procedures easy on us, even if it means negatively affecting or inconveniencing the customer.
4. Joke about how dumb the customers are.
5. Finger point at how other departments are not doing their job.
6. Customers can’t get immediate “live” help from sales or support.
7. Poor coordination across departments.
8. Show up at a demo, sales call, trade show, or meeting unprepared.
9. Ignore the competition, they are far inferior to us.
10. Miss deadlines that we commit to internally and externally.
11. Make recruiting, hiring, and training a lower priority because we are too busy doing other tasks.
12. Look for the next job assignment, instead of focusing on the current one.
13. Office gossip, rumors, and politics.
14. Rely on dissatisfied customers to be your service monitors.

Readers can share their views about Knology’s unjustified Internet Overcharging schemes and enter to win a 32″ Samsung flat panel TV in the process.  You need not be a customer to participate.  Just complete their survey, and be sure to let them know in the box labeled “other” that you will never do business with an Internet provider that doesn’t provide truly unlimited, full speed, flat rate broadband service.

A Sprint customer in Tulsa, Okla., was recently sold a Blackberry plan that included a data add-on service that allowed him to tether his Sprint wireless connection to his laptop, perfect for wireless broadband on the go.

John signed a two-year contract with the company, which included a copy of his plan choice and the charges associated with his account. There it was, right on his bill — Sprint’s “Phone as Modem” add-on, priced at $15 per month.

A few weeks later, the service stopped working, and after multiple phone calls with Sprint, John was told he should have never been sold that data plan add-on; it was only available to corporate customers, not individuals.

John pointed to his contract with Sprint, which clearly showed he was paying to receive the service, but Sprint didn’t care.  Nor would it permit him to exchange his phone for wireless broadband equipment that would provide him with the broadband service he needed.  Why?  Because he was already into his two year contract.

John was left fuming, wondering why Sprint’s contracts allow them to renege on a deal made fair and square while trapping him with equipment he can no longer use to obtain the service he needs.

“To me, they voided the contract when they took away the service without my knowledge,” John told KJRH-TV’s Problem Solver Pete Knutson. “This is principle, this is sole principle.”

John canceled his contract, but Sprint promptly billed him a $125 early termination fee and sent his account to collections, threatening his credit rating.

John was not alone in his predicament.

Sprint quietly canceled its individual “phone as modem” tethering option for Blackberry owners last April, literally stripping the feature off of any plan set up with a personal Social Security number.  Business accounts configured with a Taxpayer ID Number associated with the business name on the account kept the option.

Sprint was supposed to notify affected customers through bill inserts, but since most Sprint customers are now billed electronically, few customers got the message.

Several customers reported they were “notified” when the service simply stopped working one day last spring.  One Shenandoah Valley customer found out the hard way.

“My wife used her 8330 for internet access, and we purchased the MBR900 to tether the phone so she could have it in the best place for reception,” the customer notes.  “Sprint decided to disable the use of the phone as a modem, I thought the router went kaput until she called Sprint.”

It took five rounds of calls with Sprint customer service before finding a support representative with the real answer.

An even bigger question is why a Sprint salesperson pitched John a plan with an option that has not been sold to individuals for nine months.

As has so often been the case, phone companies seeking to avoid bad publicity nearly always waive fees and credit a customer’s account when the media comes calling.  John’s account balance was brought back from collections and promptly credited to reflect a zero balance.

Sprint refused to provide a specific explanation for how this happened. Channel 2′s Knutson advises customers to always check their cell phone contracts to make sure they are actually getting the services they are paying to receive.

KJRH-TV in Tulsa shares the story of John, a former Sprint customer who didn’t get the service his contract promised.  (2 minutes)

WBTW's Marshall Staton snapped this picture of Frontier's oversized "donation" check, which was actually a payment made in lieu of taxes.

When is a charitable contribution not charity?  When it is made in lieu of paying taxes to a local community.

Frontier Communications milked publicity for its $300,000 check presented to Horry County, S.C., officials Friday, designated to help build the Myrtle Beach International Technology and Aerospace Park.

Frontier’s Ken Arndt, president of the company’s southeast region was on hand to deliver the super-sized check.

“Our contribution recognizes the County’s technological foresight and leadership,” Arndt said .  “Frontier is committed to offering the best in residential, business and enterprise communications to the communities it serves and will continue our community support as our business grows in Myrtle Beach and South Carolina.”

If Arndt graciously told Horry County officials it was nothing, he meant it.

Through the Rural Development Act, companies are allowed to make a contribution to the counties they serve instead of turning those funds over to tax collectors.

Horry County plans to break ground on the park in the spring, hoping to have the high-tech business park up and running by the fall.