Thursday, May 16, 2013

We Have A Lousy Internet Connection

Writing a blog usually requires a speedy internet connection, especially so if we want to insert a few pictures to spice up the story with.  Ever since we moved to the island we have experienced harsh times with our phone provider “BELL ALIANT”.  The problem is that our internet connection starts getting slow after 3:00p and comes to a real crawl during the evening hours. We have tried to talk to the company about this and all we get are excuses about low bandwith on the island. Asked whether they intend to do something about this, they tell us that it is too expensive and in any case will take a lot of time. There are days we cannot make a posting during the evening. All we CAN do is get up darn early in the morning and use the time for doing our postings. All the time we have been dealing with this, the company asks us to pay the full price, even though the speed is not better than old-fashioned dial-up. I am sure that one can get a better HIGH SPEED internet connection in many parts of “third world” countries. But in Canada nobody cares.

Whenever we choose to pay with our bank card at the post, customs office or the local grocery store there is a lengthy wait for the dial-up connection to start working. YES, these terminals have a dial-up connection!

Maybe it’s time we take a trip to see the CEO of this hapless non-caring company!

8 comments:

  1. What about wireless from Eastport? I just dumped Bell Aliant and get my internet now from the village across the harbour (2 kilometers)... 40 Mbit/sec.

    Hardware cost: less than $300

    I am sharing the connection with my neighbour... half the price as before, 20 times the speed.

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  2. That's how I feel about Verizon here in AJ. We have told them time and time again how lousy the service is out here and they just say - well it must be how the mountains are positioned. Huh?? Very frustrating. Maybe that wireless from Eastport would work better for you. Good luck.

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  3. Sounds like a new Internet provider might be in order. How about a satellite setup?

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  4. You sure have my sympathy... we changed from satellite service (after 8 years) to Millinicom... unfortunately, they use Verizon, which doesn't have towers in some parts of the USA. There just HAS to be something better on the horizon....

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  5. Peter, I complained about this to Aliant. They said they had no plans to upgrade the Internet service on the island. I complained more, and they finally opened up what they call a "Second Look" document for me. (I think a few others here have done the same.) The idea with the "Second Look" is that they would, well, take a second look at their decision to not upgrade. I haven't heard back on that. But yes, the Internet access is pitiful here. Good in the morning, but it deteriorates in the afternoon as kids get home from school, etc. In the afternoons, sometimes I can't even watch a low-quality, short duration Youtube clip. I will add that I do a lot of my business on the Internet, and this is quickly becoming not practical.

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  6. We don't have real good connection at our summer homebase either. Oh, we have a great signal but with all the people using it, there just isn't enough bandwidth to give us the speed we would like. I do my blogs offline using Live Writer. That saved an awful lot of frustration. My pictures are resized to 640X480. A lot of the frustration goes out the window by doing it offline with smaller pictures. Our service is AT&T here. No other carrier offers service in this area. Thus, we have both an AT&T and a Verizon card. Ugh!

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  7. Not fun when your home base has a lousy internet connection.
    Hope you can find an alternative source. Maybe like Rick said, satellite?

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  8. I definitely feel your pain - I hate slow Internet connections! The simplest task takes forever, and finally you give up, only to go back later and go through the same thing. I've done that in some campgrounds, but don't stay long. It's a different story when it's your home area, you can't start the engine and drive away from it to a better connection area. Bummer!

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