#cell/Internet service

[johnschneiderblog]

Bar-hopping

Temperature: 44 degrees. Winds speed: 22 mph. Cell phone service: 4 solid bars.

Trumpets, please ....

On Wednesday, as we entered the home stretch in our first trip to the cottage this year - 10 miles of U.S. 23 - Sharon gave me continuous rolling reports: "three bars ....two bars ... three bars ... one bar ... two bars ... "

So it went, a real cliffhanger, but when we pulled into our driveway, we had four beautiful bars on our phones and speedy access to the Interner.

As I wrote Monday, we parted ways with our long-time cell/Internet provider (AT&T) and took up with T-Mobile for cell service, with a portable Wi-Fi hotspot.

With the AT&T hotspot, our service at our cottage near Cheboygan was pretty good, but at home it was barely functional. The T-Mobile guy got out his map and assured us that the switch would yield better service at both places.

Here's to you, T-Mobile guy ...

[awkward-teabag]

Love (cannot emphasis how much sarcasm there is in that word) that an official Canadian government response to high cellphone rates is to switch carriers.

Switch it to what? We basically have three companies since one was allowed to eat the forth (with the government saying it wasn't anti-competition and the company eating the other pinky promising they wouldn't jack rates up). Even the smaller companies have to rent infrastructure from the Big Three so there's only so much they can do if that rent costs an arm and a leg.

And that's not touching on how many "small companies" are actually just subsidiaries of the Big Three. You may save $5 but you're still with Telus/Rogers/Bell.

Or that the actual small companies tend to have shit coverage because they don't have the infrastructure available to them and are prevented from getting it. Or their traffic is throttled in favour of the Big Three's customers. Or both.

Or that they're extremely regional thus aren't an option for a huge chunk of Canada's population.

We have no true options and the government has shown time and again that they're fine with monopolies, in multiple industries, and don't care when said monopolies jack up prices to make shareholders and the c-suite more money at the expense of everyone else. At most there will be a verbal slap on the wrist and a giftcard for $25 that people have to register for, for a decade and a half of price gouging.

It's not talked a whole lot about outside the country from what I've seen and heard but Canada is a country of monopolies. A handful of companies own nearly everything, every province has a family or two that owns a hell of a lot (Nova Scotia is basically owned by one family at this point), and our government ignores it. Even the branch that is supposed to be against monopolies is fine with mergers and takeovers in most cases.

Because, you know, the company said it totally wouldn't use consumers' lack of options to increase prices.

[janet-the-interplanet]

do you think i should make a spamton divorce cake for my mom (soon to be divorced)

[spicyraeman]

Back from the void, got the power back on and the internet immediately went out ripp

[si-cucumber]

I really wish I wasn't living in the middle of a natural disaster site right now :D

[failfemme]

why is tumblr the only thing i can do online on my phone rn

[archersartcorner]

Bro (me) listened to The Warden by Chelsea Wolfe once (many times) (on repeat) (repeatedly) and thought of Spock’s Loyalty To One Man. Anyway you think if he was getting tortured for info on Jim he wouldn’t even budge-

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

I hate it when the weather is going through menopause. We had a nice, chilly, wet and rainy week. Then yesterday we were at nearly 90 F and dry af. Today? We may hit 100 F, and it's still dry af. The rest of the week is looking to be dry, but it'll be 60s F until the weekend...when we'll be in the 80s F again.

Menopause season is so annoying.

[lynne-monstr]

I don't know why it drives me so intensely crazy every time my mother texts me to ask the exact time of my doctor appointments. like, we live two thousand miles apart why do you obsessively need to know this information every time

[comradesnufkin]

.

[cometnoodle]

lands into germany

vomits more than 5 times due to air sickness

almost gets stuck in frankfurt int AGAIN

sleeps later and acts like nothing happened

[kieraelieson]

Me: oh, the internet's working again!

My boyfriend, who had just turned on his Hotspot that a mysterious device connected to immediately: Has it?

Boyfriend, turning off his hotspot and trying to connect the PS4 to the wifi: Kiera...are you sure you weren't just on my hotspot?

Me, whose Internet connection is suddenly horrible: That. Is a good question.

[itstimeforstarwars]

I miss analog phone connection because we had just finally gotten to the point where cell phone worked reliably in my area and then tv and phones all switched to digital signal and all the companies went lmao fuck the rural people. Again.

[homenecromancer]

quick PSA: i will be mobile-only for about a week, and during that time may or may not have cell service

so if you're wondering where i went, i am touching grass (in another country)

[himbeaux-on-ice]

if you want a measure of how completely and utterly under a rock i have been all summer in terms of social media, i have just learned that apparently they released good omens season 2 in july and i have been completely oblivious to this fact until about five minutes ago. mentally i have been on mars

[feraecor]

internet has been out all day :/