Category: News & Alerts

Palmer, Alaska – November 7, 2018 — The Board of Directors of Matanuska Telephone Association, Inc., (MTA) has selected Thomas Newman to fill a vacant seat on its Board. Previous MTA Board Director George Trabits resigned to pursue business opportunities.

Mr. Newman’s professional experience includes surveying on and offshore, software development, project management and corporate management. As a founder and leader of TerraSond Limited, he has grown the company from three partners and a few part-time staff working solely in Alaska to a multinational company that has performed projects in twenty-eight countries, with offices in several U.S. states and foreign subsidiaries.

Mr. Newman has direct experience with a wide variety of technology for both land and marine surveys and has incorporated the latest technology available through three decades for surveying, positioning vessels at sea, and measuring the depth and character of the ocean.

Mr. Newman has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington; a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alaska and an Associate of Applied Science from Anchorage Community College.

The MTA Board of Directors is pleased to add Mr. Newman’s expertise, professional experience and commitment to community to the Cooperative’s leadership.

Other members of MTA’s Board are Catherine Fosselman, Chief Governance Officer; Roxie Mayberry, Secretary; Nicholas Begich III, Director; and Larry Wiget, Director.

About MTA

Established in 1953 as a 100 percent locally owned and operated Alaskan cooperative, MTA is Alaska’s best choice for technology and communications products. As a key player in the economy of Southcentral Alaska, MTA provides residential and business technology solutions to empower member-owners and patrons to live a connected life. Today, MTA remains as one of the largest technology co-ops in the U.S. For more information, visit https://www.mtasolutions.com/ or connect with MTA on Facebook.

Scammers are spoofing the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) 1-800 customer service number to try to get personal information.

Here’s how it works: Your phone rings. Your caller ID shows that it’s the SSA calling from 1-800-772-1213. The caller says he/she works for the Social Security Administration and needs your personal information – like your Social Security number – to increase your benefits payments. (Or they threatens to cut off your benefits if you don’t give the information.)

According to the FTC, 1-800-772-1213 is the SSA’s real phone number, but the scammers on the phone are spoofing the number to make the call look real.

The FTC offers the following tips to combat this latest scam:

If you get one of these calls, Hang up!

The SSA will not threaten you. Real SSA employees will never threaten you to get personal information. They also won’t promise to increase your benefits in exchange for information. If they do, it’s a scam.

If you have any doubt, hang up and call SSA directly. If you dial the number, you know who you’re getting. If a call comes in from that number, you can’t be sure it’s really Social Security Administration calling.

If you get a spoofed call, report it. If someone calls, claiming to be from SSA and asking for information like your Social Security number, report it to SSA’s Office of Inspector General at 1-800-269-0271 or https://oig.ssa.gov/report.

You can also report these calls to the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint

The net neutrality rule rollback, approved by the FCC back in December 2017, took effect Monday, June 11th. MTA supports a regulatory environment that spurs the investment and innovation necessary to empower the growth of the Internet.

MTA’s position remains the same. MTA is committed to providing an open Internet experience for our members.

MTA will not throttle or prioritize content, or otherwise make any changes to our current policies and practices on how our customers can access and utilize the Internet as a result of the FCC’s actions.

Keep an eye out for suspicious-looking emails requesting updated account info, updated payment details or posing as MTA market research. If one comes your way, please delete these emails.

Here are a few tips for recognizing spam or malicious emails:

• Company logos appear distorted.
• The origination email is not the company address (i.e. official MTA communications will only include addresses ending in @mtaonline.net; @mtasolutions.com or @mta-telco.com).
• Grammar is very poor and words are often spelled incorrectly.
• The requests for information come suddenly without reason.
• MTA will never ask for personal information via email. 
• Never open an attachment, unless you’re expecting one regardless
• Contact our tech support center at 745-6821 or 694-6821 if you have additional questions.