Internet at home has been spotty the past few days, but it gets "sick" from time to time, and I sure as hell ain't going to fall into the rude jaws of Comcast, so I deal with it. Sometimes, though, it's down all day, like it was yesterday. That is incredibly frustrating, but my parents, who are now retired and have nothing to do but pud around the house all day, well, they got pissed off. Father got so pissed that he switched back to our old modem, thinking that the modem is the problem, when it is not.
I don't have the energy to fight him over this; it's the connection, the phone company's fault, not ours. But I did feel a soft breaking point, where I called the phone company and asked them to come over and fix the intermittent problem connecting. Unfortunately, like in calls past, the tech came on the line and absolutely insisted that he go through me to see what I could do before someone calls in. That necessitates me being in front of my computer and in the house to check to see, for example, if there are filters in all the right places. I was on the road -- specifically (and don't tell my parents this) I got extensions put on my insoles -- so there was no chance I was going to be able to help him. Besides, I've been through this crap before. I just wanted someone to come in and help. But the tech guy said that a house call could result in the phone company charging me up to $100. At this point, frankly, I wouldn't mind paying it. But my parents would. And they would be the ones allowing the repairman to come in, so the talk of how much this would cost would invariably come up. Will have to avoid that. At this point the Internet seems to be back up, so I have let once-barking dogs lie.
But this gets me thinking about the state of our Internet. Not just mine, which is far from perfect, but the country's. According to this list I saw on Wikipedia, the U.S. ranks 11th in Internet speed. Guess that's OK, but America isn't known for modesty, and I would rather be an Ugly American if that means I get faster download speeds. You can see on the list that South Korea is lapping the world when it comes to Internet speed; why can't we be like them?
I understand that Internet speed and ability to connect (which is my problem) isn't the same problem. But I think they share a similar solution, and one that I think is necessary: Government investment. The Federal Communications Commission caved to public interest is about to categorize the Internet as a public utility. It is now time for the country -- us -- to put our money (taxes) where are mouths are and dig up the earth to install faster cables. And maybe then my house Internet won't go down every two months.
I'm thinking about what probably is the best approach to getting fast Internet in the country: Municipality-controlled online networks. Chattanooga, Tenn., hardly a city I would call "forward-thinking," had the good sense to understand that it's best to build and maintain a fast and reliable Internet if you just build the damn thing by yourself. And now the city's taxpayers pay for Internet speeds of one gigabyte. And I hear businesses are moving in to take advantage of this government-controlled utility.
Man, I would love that here. But in most places in the country, municipality-owned Internet is not only impossible, but illegal. That's because the giant telecommunications industries (foremost among them Comcast and Time Warner) have lobbied city and state governments to make laws that forbid the governments -- in other words, themselves -- from creating their own Internet networks. Of the many ways powerful people and corporations (nearly all of them Republican) manage to force governments to fuck themselves against their own and the people's best interests, this is one of the worst.
So we are at the mercy of the whims of these private companies, who say they can supply fast and reliable Internet when it's pretty much a lie. And we have no other choice but to buy from them; in return we get download speeds that are faster in ten countries. We also get shitty customer service. What we don't get, at least not yet, is upgrades to the infrastructure, because they have shareholders they have to please and it doesn't make financial sense to spend money on paying people to install faster cables when we're just a bunch of fucking lapdogs that'll throw money their way for Internet at any speed. So they'll give us whatever speed they damn well please until someone (not the local government) forces them to upgrade.
Nevertheless (and I know I sound like I'm going back on my own outrage) I wait for my phone company, through which we get our Internet, to make good on their promise to finally dig up their old cables and eventually supply an infrastructure that they say will speed up Internet to one gig. They began their campaign last year and a representative told me it is a matter of time they got to our neck of the woods.
They fucking better. I unfortunately will be supplicating to them, paying a hell of a lot more money than I am now for what is supposed to be zooming Internet. I just hope to God it won't cut out in our house like it is now.
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