I Want Wireless Broadband And I Want It Now!

from the horror-stories dept

These days, there aren't many people out there can claim to never have had a problem with a major telco of one sort or another. This appears to be a situation that is getting worse, not better, over time. The number of ridiculous stories of the troubles people go through could fill quite a large book. You may remember that I am the broadband Bermuda triangle, but even I can't imagine the mess that Andy Seybold has been going through trying to simply move his office broadband connection across the street. The number of companies involved, the bureaucracy, the different answers, the trouble he had to go through to get answer (often involving using his status as a well-known "pundit") is simply scary.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Jul 2003 @ 1:28am

    Irrational Expectations

    Nobody expects the "right" to fly anywhere in the world for free, so why do techies expect the "right" to free internet access?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Mike (profile), 7 Jul 2003 @ 1:31am

    Re: Irrational Expectations

    Who said anything about free? That wasn't the discussion at all. The article (if you read it) is about a business user who wants to have his connection moved across the street. There's nothing about free at all.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Jul 2003 @ 1:36am

    Re: Irrational Expectations

    Same story still applies though. We do not expect airplanes to take us exactly where we want to go, so why should we expect infinite access points for the net?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Mike (profile), 7 Jul 2003 @ 1:59am

    Re: Irrational Expectations

    Your analogy makes no sense. I could just as easily say that people expect electricity to be provided wherever their office is, so it's ridiculous to think that you can't get internet access.

    What does flying places have to do with broadband connections?

    Besides, most people realize that they can fly to a reasonable approximation of where they want to go, and can then get to the exact destination via some other transportation method.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Jul 2003 @ 2:05am

    Re: Irrational Expectations

    I've lived in plenty of places in the USA where some office buildings lacked plumbing, electricity, or phone lines. People who went to a dentist's office in such a building were expected to walk across the hall to spit in the sink. There are inner city schools where the heat hasn't worked for years, the roof has leaked rain for as long as anyone can remember.

    Should not office workers expect to get their scarce exercise by walking across the street whenever they need the net?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Real Radix, 7 Jul 2003 @ 2:46am

    Unlikely scenario

    I've just moved house and BT cannot handle this unlikely scenario.

    They required me to cancel my account, wait until it has been fully deactivated (2 weeks) and then resign up again.

    Strangely I only followed step one of this process.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Jul 2003 @ 8:35am

    Re: Irrational Expectations

    You are so right, if you live in the ghetto you should not expect BB :)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 7 Jul 2003 @ 8:37am

    Re: Irrational Expectations

    Mike,

    Please do away with Anonymous Coward postings and allow us to block postings from people who are complete idiots.

    Anyone who compares airlines to ISPs or who thinks that there are plenty of schools with 0 heat and dentist offices with no running water in the USA obviously needs to get out more. I'm sure that there are places where these conditions do exist, but they are also few and far between and have absolutely nothing to do with broadband internet service.

    The truth is, broadband is still a massive headache for almost everyone. Getting it up and running is a monumental challenge for many people, and moving it or changing is next to impossible and practically requires an act of Congress and a personal note from the Pope.

    Plese keep up the good work and keep the discussion topics on topic by eliminating the idiots.

    Thanks.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2003 @ 2:33pm

    Seybold doesn't seem to understand about CLECs, et

    Seybold doesn't seem to understand about CLECs and DSLAMs etc. There are probably only two CLECs with DSLAMs in his local phone office -- Verizon and Covad. Any ISP has to go through one of the two CLECs.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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