Anyone who has read this blog knows that I love just about everything about this area. Even the bear, while frightening at first, was a great experience.
Now it's time to relate something I do not like about this area.
It's "a dead zone". It's "a marginal zone". "Don't bother".
These are the things I've been told time and again when I do research into getting decent internet access. It's disgusting that, in this area just an hour and a half from Toronto, there is no decent high speed internet available to residents. The providers all know this and still do nothing about it because "there aren't enough customers".
When I first moved here, Bell dial-up was the only thing available. Dial-up! In the 21st century! It was ridiculous.
A year or so later, I received a flyer in the mail - if the house still had a TV tower, there was now a possibility of getting high speed internet in my area. Quickly I picked up the phone and called. "We-ell, you live in a dead zone. It might be possible but more likely it's not." Hopes not yet dashed, I set up an appointment for a technician to try to install the receiver at the top of the TV tower.
Up he climbs. And spends many long minutes rotating the receiver to get a signal that is at least marginal. Okay, high speed internet has been connected though the signal is so poor that the speed is barely better than it was on dial-up. But at least I would no longer have to hear that terrible sound of dial-up connecting. I was thrilled.
Over the next three years, that feeling diminished steadily as nearly monthly, the internet would be down. "A weather system is interfering with the signal." "Snow has caused a piece on the tower to freeze." "You really shouldn't even be a customer as the signal is so low - you are in a dead zone." "There are too many customers on right now so the signal is low." "The equipment on the tower is so old that it will never be able to get a good signal all the way up to you." "Just wait, all the towers are being upgraded to WiMax. By the end of 2013, you might(!) have good internet." "A new satellite has just been launched. Maybe you should switch to satellite (at a significantly more expensive monthly rate) (and you'll not get a signal when the weather is bad, and there is a significant lag time)." "By the way, the monthly rental fee for the receiver is going up again (if I'd been able to purchase the thing, I would have had it paid off by now but the gouging continues because purchase was not an option)."
Time and time again, I spent hours on the phone with the technician. A 15 foot extender pole was installed, putting the receiver up the equivalent of three storeys high. New cable was installed from the dish to the computer. Nothing worked. Yearly, I would research internet providers hoping to find one that was available. Nope....nobody else in this area because......this is a dead zone!
Finally in February of this year, the straw broke the camel's back. Internet had been down for several days and I once again looked into other options. Fortunately the neighbour came through. He's had a Bell TurboHub for about a year now and it's been reliable for him. But maybe it wouldn't have to be Bell. Rogers and Telus also have this technology.
More research. The technology uses cell phone signals to provide internet access. Rogers signals barely make it to Uphill - scratch that option off the list. Telus looks good - my Koodo phone works well enough and that uses Telus cell signals. Then I discover that this technology is not available in Ontario at all. Only B.C. and Alberta get to use it.
Sadly, that leaves me with Bell. I thought I was done with Bell when I got rid of my land line in 2012. Now I was having to go back to them for internet. Sigh.
The neighbour brings his TurboHub over to make sure I can get a signal in my house. It works. In to town I go to purchase the TurboHub. One hundred dollars later, I am back home and testing the hub in the various windows of the house to see where the best signal would be. Great - the upper window facing south is best. So I set up the computer for wireless......and it's not working. The hub is working, the iPod is receiving, the laptop is receiving but the computer is not. Sadly, it's so old that it doesn't have the infrared receiver and so will never be able to go wireless.
Down to the computer the hub is placed. A little disappointing as the signal is not quite as good but it works.
I'm in......not yet heaven. There is a bit of a lag time that I have to get used to. I'm limited to using 2 GB per month so have to be careful how much I use it. But it's working and it's essentially reliable. I change my email address as I'm losing my email account with the previous provider - go gmail, it's great! I call the previous provider and make arrangements to have the receiver retrieved from its high perch.
And I settle in, mostly content.
And then one morning, I start the computer and I have no internet. I call the help line.
"You are in a marginal zone. We should just cancel your account right now. Have you tried the hub anywhere else?"
Back onto the hamster wheel running but getting nowhere.
I don't cancel the account. I do take the hub to an area outside this dreaded dead zone. Still no signal. It's the hub itself.
I call the help line again. I say it's the hub. I'm told, "no, it's probably the tower. I'll check and call you back in half an hour." Two hours later, the return call is useless because the technician has been on a long technical call with someone else and hasn't been able to check the tower. "Check with your neighbour to see if his hub is working." Unfortunately by now it's after 11 pm.
So I have to wait until he gets home from work the next day. But in the meantime, I go down to Sutton and test the hub in the library there. Still not working. I tell you, it's the hub. "No, that is highly unlikely. It is something else. Check with your neighbour."
The neighbour brings over his hub and sets it right beside my hub. His works perfectly. Mine is still not.
Finally the help desk accepts that the problem is the hub. "You'll have to take it back. Oh and by the way, if this had happened during the first 30 days post purchase, you would get a replacement immediately. After the first 30 days post purchase, a new hub will have to be ordered because replacements in this case come from a different source. It could take as many as 30 days to get the replacement."
AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!
I've wasted at least 3 days getting the help desk to accept that the hub is the problem and have thus fallen just outside the 30 day range.
In to town I go, steaming. Yes, the hub is being returned outside the 30 day limit. It will take 2 to 3 days to get a replacement (that's better than 30). And we have a loaner you can use in the meantime (!!)"
Finally, some good news. As the rep prints off the multipage form I have to sign in order to get the loaner, she removed the sim card from my hub and puts it into the loaner. I say, "There is some concern that the sim card might be the problem." "Oh no," she says. "That's not likely."
Hmmmm. Okay well she should know, right?
I complete the thirty minute drive home and plug in the loaner. Still no internet! Cuss word, cuss word, cuss word, string of cuss words.
I call the store and am told to come in for a new sim card which will cost "$5 plus the $20 activation fee". "For a sim card that is only a month old?" "Well, there is no warranty on these things but come in and we'll waive the cost."
Another 30 minute drive into town. A new sim card is provided. It is put into the original hub to test. Nope, the hub is still not working properly. So both the hub and the sim card were the problem.
Thirty minutes back home, STILL NO INTERNET. At this point, I am so frustrated I just start crying.
Then I call the store again. This time, I talk with Kim who says "Well of course your sim card won't work. The loaner is not set up to read that sim card." "So how do we fix that?" "We don't," she says. "The loaner is intended only to test if there is a signal at your location."
Can I say it again?
AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!
The next day, I receive a call to tell me the replacement has come in. It's taken only one day! Back into town I go. Brandon takes care of me. I ask him to test the replacement. He removes the sim card from the loaner and puts it into the new hub. I mention that the new hub hasn't been set up to read that sim card (see how quickly I learn). He shakes his head. Fifteen minutes later, he still can't get the new hub to work. I repeat that bit about the sim card. "Oh, let's try the card that came with the new hub!" he says. Success!
It's been two weeks. The new hub is working well. The signal is decent even in the near constant snow we've been getting this month.
And I am keeping my fingers crossed that this new hub will last more than a month.
After all, the Bell employees just laughed every time I asked them, "what if this hub dies as well?"
Oh, that won't happen!
Keep your fingers crossed. And if I don't respond to your emails at some point, I'm probably without internet. Be patient and hopefully I will be back online some day.
NOTE: as I reread this in October, I discover that only a part of this story has been told. The replacement hub did last longer than one month. Then three months after I got it, it too stopped working. Replacement came within a week. That one lasted only two weeks. And took two weeks to be replaced. I'm now on the fourth hub since February. Now that's a GOOD product (can you hear the sarcasm?) that Bell continues to sell to unwitting fools like myself.
And now I'm thinking I might just need to go back to xplornet. I'm going to have to wait though. The contract that allows me to use this great Bell product goes until Feb. 2015 and it's going to cost me nearly $400 to get out of the contract despite the fact that I've already gone through 4 hubs and I'm in a marginal zone where the speed I receive is less than 1/10th of the speed I'm paying for.
Sigh.....I really do love this area. I just wish it had better internet.
