Twentysomethings Tyler and Alex Palmer had just moved into a new house in mid-March when, like much of the country, they were directed to work from home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The only problem — their Phoenix house near South Mountain Park didn't have an internet connection. They would soon learn that not only has the pandemic made having home internet more important than ever, it's also made it nearly impossible to have someone install it for you.

Orders to work from home have collided with orders to maintain social distancing, including for the technicians who help people set up and maintain those internet connections.

To ensure the safety of customers and workers, Cox Communications and CenturyLink no longer send technicians into homes. They will make house calls, but installations and repairs are directed from outside, with help from willing customers in the home.

What this means is that if your modem goes out, or you need a new cable run through the wall, you are going to have to do some of the work yourself. Technicians will give you instructions through a window, via text messages or from a video call.

"We haven't found many we can't get done," said Shawn Duncan, Cox's vice president of field operations in Arizona and Nevada, who oversees thousands of service calls a day in the two states.

Initially, Cox provided workers additional protective equipment and allowed them to work as usual with some added precautions, like not shaking customers' hands. In late March, as the pandemic grew, they stopped going into homes and had to get creative.

Some of the work technicians are doing is temporary, allowing customers to have service until May or whenever it's safe for a technician to return and enter the home.

"We've had to do things like buy a Home Depot bucket and put it over a modem installed outside," Duncan said. "Sometimes we'll install a modem with Wi-Fi in the garage temporarily. Then we will come back and install it the right way once this is all over."

Some services, like installing new home alarm systems, are not available for now, because they require so much work inside.

Service calls are taking a little longer than usual with customers having to help, he said, but the company is making few exceptions.

"We are holding pretty strong on not crossing the threshold," Duncan said, adding that the rare exceptions are for people who have medical equipment that needs to be connected to communications and don't have somebody who can help from inside.

In those cases, the crews will don protective gear and enter the residence.

CenturyLink, an internet provider that partners with Dish satellite television, is operating similarly, said Mark Molzen, a global issues manager for the company.

"To complete installations, we have implemented a 'partnership process' which we call Safe Connections, that enables the technicians to complete any exterior work as usual while guiding our customer (from outside the home) to complete interior work," Molzen said. "We're committed to working together with our customers to ensure the safety of our communities."

New house, two jobs, no internet

The Palmers were just thankful Wednesday to have a technician show up and help connect them to the internet.

The past month has been a challenge. As the pandemic hit in late March, they were both told to work from home but couldn't get a service provider to show up and wire their house.

"We moved in right as things changed, and right as they started shutting things down," Tyler said.

The couple had to improvise.

Alex would drive to a nearby Tempe school, where she is a speech pathologist, and work for a few hours from her car while connected to the shuttered school's Wi-Fi.

"I've been sitting in my car a couple hours a day," she said.

They still had two weeks on the lease at their old apartment, so Tyler would go there to work.

But when that lease ran up, and they still couldn't get anyone to install internet at the house, Tyler had to take paid leave from his job until he could work from home.

"We're desperate to get back to work," he said.

The couple — expecting their first child next month — also understood the safety concerns of not wanting to get too close to others if it's not necessary.

"That's why it's great Cox gives us this option of a virtual installation," Tyler said.

Cox technician Pablo Barajas showed up at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and by 11:30 the couple was online, but the Palmers had to help him out a little.

Temporary solution, with some help

The Palmers wanted to run wiring for their modem to an office in the middle of the house. Tyler even offered to crawl through the attic to pull the wire down the interior wall, knowing that Cox technicians would not enter the home to do that.

Barajas and his supervisor were concerned with that plan. If the connections in the attic or interior of the house were not done correctly, the service wouldn't work.

The Palmers didn't want to drill any extra holes in their new home's exterior, but they all agreed that running a temporary cable through the exterior wall into the office, and returning later to run the cable through the attic and into a closet, was the best option.

To help with that plan, the Palmers used the FaceTime app on their phone to give Barajas a virtual tour of the house and the room where the modem would be located.

When Barajas fed the wire through the wall, they fed the end back out the window to him so he could install the proper fitting.

Barajas said technicians have had to get more involved with some customers, including teaching them how to use FaceTime, then walking them through setting modems or other equipment on a call while the technician stands outside.

The Palmer's service call was $75, which included Cox technicians locating the conduit in the front yard, digging a shallow trench along the side of the house to the back yard and running the cable into the home.

Running the cable through the exterior wall allowed Barajas to peek through the window and guide Tyler on the connection, and ensure the modem was working properly once everything was hooked up.

"It's a good feeling to be connected in this house, finally," Tyler said.

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on Twitter @UtilityReporter.

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