I’ve been without Internet for a while now.
We seem to have arrived at that place where the U.S. was, say, ten years ago, when the ISP blames the lack of a dial-up connection on the telephone company, and the phone company says they are in the business of telephone calls and therefore—because I am calling them—there is nothing wrong with their lines.
It was time to move on.
I would say one doesn’t realize just how tied to modern conveniences one gets, but I fully and completely do not take anything I have for granted.
Years ago, I had to pay all my bills in person. There were no banks in the area, not to mention internet services, and our utility bills arrived at a predetermined place, which changed often and with no warning. Every month we drove over a very rutted road and checked to see whether the bill had arrived or not (usually not). The phone bill and the electric bill arrived on different dates and at different locations. Things improved over time, and now I pay all my bills with online banking. So, when the Internet went down three weeks ago I resorted to driving up to Cocles to the nearest WiFi hotspot to check emails and pay bills.
With the war between the phone company and the ISP going on, I decided to look into satellite. I’ve already been told that the two cable companies are not servicing my little community because, they say, there are not enough interested buyers. One satellite company said they no longer installed them because the phone company was now selling a 3G USB key which gives high speed service from the cell towers.
Wow, I said, I’ll give it a try.
We spent an entire day driving up to Cartago to the only electric/ phone company office that would answer their phone, and I bought one. Back home, I plugged it into my computer and got a measly 7200 bps. It appears that we live in a black hole of internet service. Our property is at the tail end of two prefix zones, the cell towers are as far away from us as humanly possible and, as I already said, the cable companies aren’t coming.
Back to the satellite options.
TicoSat claimed they had the service but would not say directly whether they had authority to install satellite service from the government controlled monopoly, I.C.E. The man on the phone used phrases like, “As far as I know,” when I asked the question point blank. I didn’t feel very good about it and finally called another company recommended by neighbors called Dr. Dish.
It was not cheap. Think purchasing a brand-new VW Beetle circa 1975, but the monthly bills are about the same as my ISP provider, plus the phone company minutes, plus a U.S. based callback service I used combined.
I now have Internet 24/7. We are able to download podcasts of our favorite shows. I can call my family for less than one cent a minute, and I now have constant access to reference sources on the Net. I can also begin to think about backing up my files online.
We have been through some heavy rain and overcast skies, and still I have signal and service.
Beam me up, Scotty!
