Re: the joys of cable

[Eric Blake <ebb9 at byu dot net>]

Linda Walsh <cygwin <at> tlinx.org> writes:

> Another benefit of cable internet.  The phone company would
> be out for a repair like that in at _most_, a few days, likely
> ~36 hours if you take first available.

Don't land line phone providers have to do that anyway, because of laws about 
guarantees to 911 services?  Land line phones also have the cool property of 
working even when the power is out (unless, of course, you use only wireless 
handsets).  On the other hand, VOIP providers make you sign a big 911 
disclaimer as part of your contract, stating that you accept responsibility for 
the fact that power or connectivity outages disable your 911 coverage, so that 
they can weasel their way out of any requirements to restore 911 service in a 
timely manner.

So of course, when I called my third-party VOIP provider, they said there was 
nothing they could do about it and that they wouldn't refund any money for the 
service lost while waiting for the repair, since it was the cable company's 
fault.  Meanwhile, the cable company doesn't feel obligated to speed up any 
service, because I'm not using the cable company's VOIP service, and there are 
no laws about TV or Internet being essential.  Which leaves me caught in the 
middle of a blame game.  But at least the cable company agreed to refund my 
money for the duration of the downtime.

> 	Suppose this is a good reason not to put all ones communication
> needs in one basket..

Well, it was this very vulnerability that made my wife convince me to get cell 
phones last December, so that we at least have backup phone service when the 
Internet is out.  But it doesn't make it any nicer to realize that I have to 
pay airtime for calls forwarded from my VOIP home number to the cell phone, 
where the calls would have been free if VOIP were up.

> 	Two weeks?!  You wouldn't, by any chance, have Comcrap for a
> provider?  This situation just sounds so "Comcraptic!"

Got it in one!

Obviously, their commercials about "faster Internet speeds" must only apply 
once you are connected, and not while waiting for the repairman to take two 
weeks to set up the connection.

[And to the hippos reading this thread, I guess you CAN use gmane to post to 
this list.  But man, I feel kind of left out on the cygwin-apps discussion 
about Base packages, since some of mine (libreadline[4-6]) were in the fray.  
Thanks to those who did the work in my behalf.]

-- 
Eric Blake