New Year, Same Old, 29. This Is Getting Old.

My journey to change to fiber optic internet service should have finished yesterday. The technician had an appointment at twelve in the afternoon to hook us up. So, I should now be on broadband, footloose and fancy free, right?

No. 

The technician came and looked at the installation. He said he couldn't see a hook-up box on the posts next to my house, and that he would go walking along the road until he could find it. I waited as he walked. He kept walking. He reached the end of the road and came back. There was no hook-up box. And, as far as he could tell, there was no fiber optic cable.

AAARRRGGGHHH!

I pointed out that I have a copy of a permission my husband signed, back in the summer of 2018, giving Telefónica/Movistar permission to place fiber optic cable on the telephone wire posts that were in my property limits. I remember perfectly, a week or two after signing, that technicians came by and went stringing up the new cable from house to house, coming from the direction of the general road. What the hell do you mean, I don't have fiber optic service available?

The technician expressed his condolences, but he could see no fiber optic cable passing by above our heads. I could ask for one to be installed, but it would take a couple of months. Good day.

He left and I went back inside, steaming mad. It was time to make lunch, and my pots got an extra dent or two, and a couple of plates barely saved themselves from smashing. I called the computer store where I had contracted the fiber with Lowi, and explained what had happened. They couldn't understand why the technician hadn't seen anything. According to the program on Lowi's page (and every other telecom page) I had fiber optics available. There was nothing for it but to sign up with Movistar if I wanted decent internet.

So, I went this morning, and bowed to the extortion. The computer store clerk explained that that was a common occurence at first time hook-ups. It was made so the technicians, which work for a company subcontracted by Movistar, would end up forcing the subscriber to sign up with Movistar. There is no other way around, because the wait times could easily exceed two or three months with other companies. 

I signed up for Movistar's O2 cheapest subscription, which includes a landline I don't want and don't need. The store clerk explained that they should be calling me within a week, though they might do so even earlier. Fine. I hope my existing wifi connections hold out until I'm hooked up. Otherwise, my newly online classes might not be possible.  

I am so sick and tired of the consented monopoly of so many services. If it had been a state monopoly, I would have had less problems, more than anything because state monopolies of basic services tend to charge less than companies on the open market. It's also not necessarily true that having more competing companies, with unregulated pricing, will bring better service. And, because outgoing politicians usually get consulting jobs with the big companies when they leave politics, it's a vicious circle of favors among them that will not end. The revolving doors linking politics and big business is extremely difficult to break. Who loses? The general public.

Life continues.