HOME Connectivity...?

Kicking this story out the door while contemplating what to hope for on the connectivity front in 2024.

"RantWoman, you should probably apply for the Affordable Connectivity Program."

There are various reasons, some documented elsewhere that RantWoman has not yet applied. One is that volunteering through the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing gets RantWoman "plenty of bandwidth," except for the part about impending construction expected to disrupt that access for up to SIX MONTHS!?!?!

Anyway, RantWoman is going to summarize options available at her home address, which just to confuse data mavens is different from her mailing address. RantWoman is not going to identify providers but anyone who recognizes their company and wants to argue is invited to submit a comment which RantWoman will not post but will follow up on.

Also note to internet providers: competition matters. AND RantWoman learned awhile ago at a transportation related neighborhood walk that there are 9000 units of new housing permitted within less than a mile of a soon to be opened light rail station. SO opportunity???

The currently operating providers

The Old Telecomm Co.

--Has been serving RantWoman's building for years.

--Satisfactory for one neighbor's needs.

--Sends a different neighbor to the computer lab to watch Amazon videos without a lag.

--Repairs require staff assistance to allow access to a communications closet.

--RantWoman said goodbye when she got rid of her land line, partly because premium plans were not available at RantWoman's address.

Another widely advertised service has an address lookup that says "Not available yet in your area."

Brand known not to live up to its name not only for people in RantWoman's building.

--Some iteration of a provider that formerly charged what seem to RantWoman to be outrageous prices for cable. 

--Has a zip code lookup that SAYS its higher speed plans do not serve RantWoman's zip code BUT is the wire behind "plenty of bandwidth" at the computer lab. RantWoman thus wonders, because the computer lab is in a different building without 120+ individual apartments, whether "plenty of bandwidth" would hold up if there were a last mile to the other building and to individual apartments.

--"plenty of bandwidth" still sometimes has a lag late at night. RantWoman has not chased down reasons for this.  YouTube lag just is not the most pressing problem of RantWoman's life.

A hot spot with "unlimited" service from RantWoman's cell phone provider.

--"Unlimited" means on months when RantWoman needs personal, private, and otherwork connectivity, RantWoman sometimes hits 16GB of "unlimited" and is informed that performance may slow.

--RantWoman is unclear about why if she has two supposedly unlimited lines and the cellphone seems often just to use Wifi if it is available the total in "unlimited" cannot cover both lines but it doesn't.

A few weeks ago, RantWoman's smartphone went belly up in spectacular and pathetic fashion. For a few days RantWoman was quite bereft until she was able to go to a store and get a new phone, 5G even. 

Digression: While phoneless RantWoman added to a periodic bus journey to another neighborhood and wanted to stop at a store where she got really great helpful service during her most recent previous phone transition. SIGH. That location had closed. Phoneless, RantWoman had to go home and look up the location she has now visited more times than would be preferable.

Getting a new phone has so much info reload overhead that RantWoman did not deal further with the 4G hot spot for a while, until...Black Friday promotion, briefly summarized as try 5G home internet for free. Off Rantwoman went on the bus only to need to wait for help and while waiting for help watch other customer interactions that RantWoman will document separately. RantWoman is a little unclear why the clerk did not think to note that RantWoman has a mailing address in a different zip code than her home address. Based on talking to another customer who lives in that zip code, RantWoman is willing to bet that 5G home access is not uniform through that zip code. 

As RantWoman learned later, the zip code lookup for 5G availability says RantWoman's mailing address zip code is covered and RantWoman's home address is not. In any case RantWoman got advice about how to call for help AND a suggestion to ask about both the Affordable Connectivity Program and a $200 Amazon gift card that was part of the Black Friday promotion., RantWoman toted a home internet gateway home to try it out. It doesn't work. RantWoman had a mutually frustrating tech support call with a very brave staff person about what was or was not in the corporate smartphone app and what does or does not happen about RantWoman's phone. 

At a certain point, RantWoman realized what was wrong and that the tech support person really probably could not fix the problem. RantWoman had provided one clue that might have been helpful: RantWoman's phone switches in and out of 5G within her apartment and chances are that would happen for the home internet unless RantWoman was able to find a spot that MIGHT have stable 5G and a surface to put the gateway on.. 

AT LAST, RantWoman fired up her hotspot and looked at the regular corporate website. That is where RantWoman discovered the all-important zip code lookup and decided that at least for now, the 5G unlimited home internet is not going to work.

Along comes a Cyber Monday come back to our store promo. RantWoman decided that would be a good day to go return the Home gateway. RantWoman was WRONG. The store would not accept the device. RantWoman had a call, in store, to someone who finally said that for $2 more per month than what RantWoman was paying counting two lines and taxes RantWoman could keep her hotspot and get the next increment of "unlimited." 

As for returning the device, in an age of connectivity and printable bar codes, there would be need to SNAIL MAIL RantWoman a return label which would arrive in 5-7 days. RantWoman gets mail at a UPS store and knew she already had packages to pick up so she figured pick up packages and box and label and pack and ship the device out in a few days on the same trip.

RantWoman was optimistic. One rainy day RantWoman packed up the gateway in its original box with all the original packaging along with something waterproof to carry things. Off RantWoman headed out to her mailbox.

RantWoman picked up her other packages.

The anticipated return materials had not arrived. RantWoman pondered a bit and then decide to TRY something: RantWoman has email on her Smartphone. The UPS Store has email and printing capacity. Could RantWoman PERHAPS get the needed return label emailed to her while she waited at the UPS store...?

Ring, Ring

Automated voice "this is your assistant. ... Your wait to talk to a representative is 45 minutes or some such thing but try 'text me.' RantWoman has previous experience with texting. RantWoman assumes that the texting line is working several calls ata time, just based on the response time between messages. The text line got RantWoman an email that SUPPOSEDLY had a return label. Supposedly. Instead what was there was more links, more acres of print RantWoman was not going to read with either bad eyes or screen reader, the need to log back into the app, and then AGAIN nothing in the app to do the last step to print the label.

ANOTHER call. This time RantWoman demanded a human and got one fairly quickly. RantWoman got passed to one person in the Home Internet program. RantWoman explained the problem AGAIN. THANKFULLY the customer service person was still listening. While Home Internet person was telling RantWoman that what she requested Could Not Be Done, Wonderful Customer service was able to do a workaround that got everyone close enough to get the box shipped with instructions if the workaround unravels on the other end.

But back to the Affordable Connectivity Program:

--RantWoman currently qualifies based on income, BUT aspires to have more income next year so...

--Renewal of the Affordable Connectivity program is up to Congress in a few months anyway so...

PS. RantWoman would DEFINITELY not turn down the $200 Amazon gift card promised as part of the Try Home Internet promotion. Now, if only RantWoman can figure out who to ask....

PPS. Thank you to the UPS Store staffperson worried about RantWoman getting safely home in the rain and dark. RantWoman was, as usual, wearing her hi vis I'm Allergic to getting run over fashion outerwear. RantWoman had too streets to cross at a COMPARATIVELY safe location with understandable if quiet APS (accessible pedestrian signals). After that RantWoman had one bus transfer but NO MORE STREET CROSSINGS.