Yesterday our Internet and TV service went dark. It’s happened before, but it always got fixed in a reasonable amount of time (4-5 hours is my definition of reasonable for something like this).

Eight hours into the outage I managed to reach someone from Spectrum, our so-called service provider. Their automated system kept telling me that my area was “experiencing intermittent outages, and our technicians are working hard to restore your service”, but I could find no evidence of that online. (Using my weak T-mobile phone service as a mobile access point, the same thing I’m doing to post this). When I reached their human, she said no, there was no outage in my area so they would have to schedule a technician to come by and check things out. The first appointment they had to offer was Friday, four days out. No amount of outrage on my part would move her from that date, so I hung up the phone upset and determined to switch providers.

Today I still have a goal of switching, but I want to also fix the weakness in our data services. We need two providers, and I’m willing to pay for that. Turns out Internet service is now the #3 priority in our house, just after electricity and running water. It may become #2 after our Tesla battery bank goes in.

Without Internet, I can’t do video calls. There’s no Netflix or Amazon Prime via Roku. My music server won’t work. Doing basic research for writing is difficult. And on and on.

Living on a rural hilltop as we do puts me at a disadvantage here. Many of the advanced data services (like AT&T fiber) aren’t or may not be available at our address. The cell carrier’s coverage is also weak. Where’s Musk’s space-based Internet service when you need it?

Anyway, later today I’m off to a coffee shop somewhere to use their Internet service and do some research on what services I should sign up for. And Spectrum will be last on my list.