Los Havros

To those of you reading this, in possession of a fast, always-on broadband connection, you need to read this and see how lucky you currently are.  Bit of a bold statement?  In light of what I’m going to say, I think not.

I’ll give a bit of a background first, then I’ll delve into the meat of what I want to talk about.  I’ve been a user of super-fast, always-on broadband connections for many years now.  Way before having a router was the norm, and Wi-Fi became trendy.  Most people were still on dial-up.  Was I rich?  Was I some kind of millionaire?  Nope, we just had cable.

Cable is truly remarkable for broadband.  It is lightening fast, due to the fact that the backbone of the network is fibre optic.  Something that BT is still mulling over.  Anyhow, initially I always marvelled at the fact that the web was always just ‘there’ and I didn’t have to worry running up expensive bills, or the fact that everything was just so fast.  It was incredible.

Back to the present.  A few weeks ago I started giving some serious thought to what I would do for internet at my flat for my 3rd year at Uni.  As I was in halls of residence for the first couple of years, that was no problem, as we had a very fast 10Mb connection. Bliss.

After reading many providers’ sites, they all required a fixed phone line, a 12 month minimum contract, and a relatively high monthly rate.  The cheapest option would have been Virgin Media as we wouldn’t have needed a fixed phone line.  With being students and having mobiles- who needs the extra expense of a fixed phone line?!  Unfortunately we seem to live in the minority area of Liverpool that isn’t in a cabled area.  And we are right on the edge of campus as well!  I digress…

So I found myself in the unusual situation of not knowing what to do next.  Then came the answer: mobile broadband.  Unfortunately the first thing that went was the speed.  I’m lucky if I’m on the 3G network at all, and on average my connection speed is only about twice that of dial-up.

The second is problem is that I now find myself constantly watching my usage meter and it’s driving me nuts!  I’m actually having to ration my use, and choose what sites I can and can’t view.  Watching any videos has gone out the window, and if I want to download any music, it’ll only have to be the odd couple of tracks.  I’m not even writing this post online!  I’m disconnected, offline and writing this in Microsoft Word which means all the formatting will have to be re-done in WordPress when I go back online.

Those first two points may seem petty, but they lead me rather nicely to the third matter- my connection to the online world.  As internet has meant to be always-on, sites and applications have grown to reflect this.  You can stay signed in to your favourite IM client, receive emails and tweets and soon as they have arrived, and so much more.  The web has seen a paradigm shift from something that was dipped in and out of, to something that is deep and pervasive, that weaves its way into our lives in some way or another.  I feel I have lost that.

Am I addicted to the web?  Possibly, but in a good way!  Sure, I’ll mess about on the web and consume entertainment such as music, film trailers, and watching TV through services such as iPlayer and 4OD, but I use the web a lot to stay up to date with the news, as it happens.  These days, the web can break stories a good day or two before they enter mainstream news on the TV and in print.  Also, with the whole web 2.0 aspect, I can participate in discussions and debate in real time, which traditional media just don’t (or can’t) offer.

Well, that concludes this article.  Does anyone feel my pain?  Or do any of you have any thoughts on this area?

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Tags: broadband, cable, connectivity, dial-up, ISP, Liverpool, mobile broadband, reliability, speed, Virgin Media