About 5,600 area residents, many of them students, had their cable modem systems turned off last semester for 16 days.

Just weeks before the Penn State final-exam period began, when several professors were collecting end-of-the-semester research papers, numerous off-campus students found themselves without Internet service.

The AT&T toll-free telephone help desk remained busy for hours, due to the high volume of incoming calls. But, even for those students who did get through to a service representative, there was no solution available for their failed modems.

When those same students got their December statements in the mail, they noticed they had been charged for the period when they did not receive service.

Apparently AT&T's Internet supplier, Excite@Home, shut down the network when Adelphia took over as the local supplier.

Joe Rocco, general manager for Adelphia in State College, explained that customers who were billed for the period that they lost service will receive a $43 credit to their accounts, two free days for every day of lost service.

Still, there's no satisfactory explanation as to why the service was lost in the first place. Furthermore, there is no indication it won't happen again.

The recent problems faced by State College-area AT&T customers are part of another chapter in a history of bad service communication companies have provided to students.

For those who have lived off-campus for the past few years, several situations of bad service by the local telephone and Internet providers can be conjured up.

Few would forget the months many students went without telephone service during the Fall 2000 with the Verizon strike. And for the cable modem customers, faulty and/or nonexistent service is also a problem.

There is no reason why customers should have to deal with problems that arise from corporate mergers, understaffed help desks and flawed accounting departments — yet we do.

Since there are only a few State College-area telephone companies that offer local service, and a couple that offer cable modem service, residents are forced to deal with the problems that arise, for lack of a better choice.

Each of these companies represents a monopoly in the area, and as consumers we are given no choice but to take what they offer or leave it.

We suggest the latter.