Quicksand Fans

A week-and-a-day ago, an AT&T tech came out and blew more than half a day, redoing the install at my house for our uverse internet. He did this so I would have internet that did not die every time power went down. I asked for this because I have a laptop and at least a 20 minute battery backup for my desktop PC, and electricity that does tend to go offline around once every month or two.

Turns out uverse does have a battery backup available, but ONLY for your uverse voice land-line. (We do not have a voice line at all, here at the house) Now, if I want internet despite a power outage, I'll need to set my cellphone up to be a hotspot, and get on that way. That'll be extra fun to do with the power off. GRUMP!

How about this then? I bought a phone and internet service from British Telecom; they promised they would both be online on Feb 3. Came the date, the phone worked, but when I tried the computer, nothing! Phoned BT, was told that my connection date had been "put back nine days" due to some unspecified "problems at the exchange". So I was without internet for nine days which I had paid for! Asking around (and consulting consumer complaint sites) reveals that mine is not an unusual experience; some people have had to wait SIX MONTHS for their internet to come on line. Anyone out there thinking of buying internet; DON'T BUY BT!

Tim Kelly wrote:How about this then? I bought a phone and internet service from British Telecom; they promised they would both be online on Feb 3. Came the date, the phone worked, but when I tried the computer, nothing! Phoned BT, was told that my connection date had been "put back nine days" due to some unspecified "problems at the exchange". So I was without internet for nine days which I had paid for! Asking around (and consulting consumer complaint sites) reveals that mine is not an unusual experience; some people have had to wait SIX MONTHS for their internet to come on line. Anyone out there thinking of buying internet; DON'T BUY BT!

I have to agree I'm afraid. While I have not had the same experience, the service I had for a long time with them was badly overpriced. An ad they run quite a lot is downright comical - they make some vague promises followed by a lengthy string of conditions rattled off and accelerated so much all it really says, to me, is "be warned you will never get what you think you will get". That said, the other companies offering land line service are terrible too. I just cancelled the land line at the Studio, which gave 27k dialup internet, after nine years of promises followed by nothing except frequent outages. The studio now has a satellite service for internet and a basic cell phone for voice. The internet is partially limited in bandwidth but its tolerable and a LOT better than the dialup.

I recently got rid of Xfinity for the same reasons.... they promise you this give you that etc

We've been really lucky. Our television is through Dish Network, who we've had good luck with. We are, however, about to drop TV service, since there's so little on worth watching these days that it's very expensive entertainment. Can't really justify both Satellite TV and high-speed Internet.

After we finally dumped AOL (yeah, that long ago) we went with EarthLink for our internet service (dial-up at the time.) Our connection had always sucked, so after we got EarthLlink, I sent a message to tech support. The reply? "Try a modem string- here's some web links." Damn, after that I was able to log in first time, every time, at the max capacity of the modem. And no busy signals with EarthLInk. When we made the jump to high-speed, we got it through EarthLink also- they buy bandwidth on TimeWarner's "Roadrunner" network. So far so good, other than having to reboot the cable modem an average of once a week.

Our daughter's cell phone was originally with AT&T. Other than being expensive, we had good luck with them, if you can believe it. And at the time, it was the best deal. We switched her to Verizon last year when she needed a new phone. Not only did we get a better deal, but she got the phone she (and we) wanted- a non-smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. I have to carry an Android smart phone (LG VS998 4G LTE) on the Verizon network for work, which works perfectly. Of course, my employer in their infinite wisdom, has made some kind of deal where we all lose our 'droids and get stuck with obsolete iPhones. NOT looking forward to that. My Lady Wife has a TracPhone for emergencies and as a backup for our landline phone. We keep that because it works if the power goes out, and for some bizarre reason the cell service at our place, despite being in LOS of several towers not too far away, is iffy at best. That, and spinning compasses, are the most normal of the odd things that go on around here.

I will check into whether or not our Internet works when the power goes out. I do have the power supply for the cable modem plugged into one of the UPS units. If we could solve the issue of no power = no phone service, then VOIP ("internet phone") might finally make sense. If it's a case of only having internet for 20 minutes or so until all the backup batteries run down, then forget it.

I'm holding out for August. That's when our last contract with AT&T is over, and we can truly shop for a sweet deal among the phone companies.

I just wish I had started my own internet service provider back in the 90's.