Earlier this week, I posted about "screen time"... Kind of ironically, yesterday, I woke up to find myself without wifi internet connection. And the basic trick of restarting the router did not help (as it often does if there's just been a temporary glitch).
Strange how this immediately makes me feel oddly disconnected from the rest of the world these days - even with electricity, radio and TV still working...!
Not least my morning felt a bit odd, because for one thing I nowadays subscribe to my morning newspaper online only, and for another, after breakfast it's in my usual routine to check various other online things (emails, blogs, my daily Duolingo Spanish lesson, and whatnot).
When the internet still hadn't come back on after a couple of hours, it dawned on me that I could still connect to the world by turning on mobile data on my phone, though. I rarely use mobile data as I'm rarely away from home for more than a couple of hours at a time. So I don't subscribe to very much of it - but I also had hardly used any of what I did have...
So I checked my broadband supplier's website, and found that the problem was affecting all their customers in my town and that they were working on it. I kept checking in for updates during the day. Around noon they had established that the fault was with the "cooling system" at their local subcontractor... A couple of hours later, that the subcontractor had had to order some replacement equipment. Next update (around 3 pm), that the equipment would not arrive until around 7 pm. Around 8 pm, I noticed that I my wifi connection was back on again - and the website informed me that it had been fixed since around 7:30.
As adventures go, not much of an ordeal to brag about! However, it did make me consider that it may be about time that I exchange my prepaid phone card for a monthly subscription (also including a little more mobile data). Even if just to feel a bit more secure when things like this happen. (My broadband phone, from the same supplier, was also not working during this outage.) Besides, one's phone number is demanded for so many things these days that I'd hate to lose the number just by perhaps missing to renew my prepaid period on time. (That's never happened so far, but after all I'm not getting any younger...)
8 comments:
my prepaid smartphone is just like yours, except they charge the monthly amount to my charge card. i don't forget because they never forget. i have same type plan, use wifi at home and turn on moible data if needed. mine is tracfone and i have had it and the same number since 2005, i bought a flip phone to travel back and forth to work for safety sake, it just rode in the the glove compartment and i never used it. since then i went to a non flip and now on the 2nd smartphone. I was thinking while reading why not use your phone, then you said you did. I have to use mine to call to report when our cable phone goes out with our interent. I am thinking of getting an upgrade smart phone, the one i have is 3 now and acting funky. put my number on the new one, and get a card for the one i have and just do the prepay to have an extra phone that is never used. hope that makes sense
Good idea. And hopefully you will get to keep your same number.
Sandra, my pre-payment is not monthly, I pay a certain sum and it lasts as long as it lasts (depending on how many phone calls I make and how long). But I need to pay a minimum sum at least once a year to keep the phone going and keep my number. As I make few long phone calls, and don't use much mobile data either, I've often not needed to refill more than once or twice per year and have thus got away much cheaper than I would with a subscription with monthly payments. But checking the company's current alternatives recently, I'm thinking it may be worth it now in other ways to change to their cheapest "senior" monthly subscription.
Ginny, I can keep the same number as long as I keep paying...
Funnily enough we had exactly the same issue here a couple of weeks ago and yes I found it strangely peaceful too, like there were no pressures on me.
Since I changed my internet provider, I haven't really had any trouble - just the occasional glitch, but nothing major - so far. There's always a first time of course!
Carol, as I understood the info on the website the problem this time wasn't really with my internet provider but locally at our city cable network central. Have to confess my concept of how exactly the technology works is rather fuzzy, though.
Mine is non-existent!
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