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Broadband, how I love thee…

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, and I don’t think I’d ever realised how much I relied upon a proper broadband connection. Although we all complain about the speeds at work, at the end of the day, they are pretty fast… In my previous lodgings, I had a lovely neighbour, who gave me access to his broadband (much much appreciated), and then I moved into a new place, and we thought that we could just swap the names on the bill… oh no. For BT/O2, we had to have the phone line disconnected, be given a new phone-number, and then around 6-10 days after that be reconnected to the internet, and we’ve got it back tonight.

Taking It For Granted

It’s amazing how much I realised I had taken broadband for granted. Thankfully, with my iPhone, I still had basic internet access, and thus was able to continue writing aspects of my lectures (not always obtainable in books, and definitely not in the middle of the night). However, we decided that this was a good excuse to get dongles, and thought this would provide us with faster internet access…. Oh no! Even when it deigned to connect, it was connecting usually via GPRS, and HPSDA if I was lucky, and I never knew whether it was going to stay connected. In frustration I took my laptop into the shop – at which point I was warned that I was running far too many things at once… but that’s just the way I have got used to working!! So, it’s been one website at a time, awaiting it’s slow load… and given me a fresh appreciation for what others who don’t have home broadband may experience.

MEANTIME: HAPPY TO BE BACK!

By Digital Fingerprint

Digiexplorer (not guru), Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing @ Manchester Metropolitan University. Interested in digital literacy and digital culture  in the third sector (especially faith). Author of 'Raising Children in a Digital Age', regularly checks hashtag #DigitalParenting.

2 replies on “Broadband, how I love thee…”

I tend to take broadband for granted too… I think everyone who has it does. I suppose there’s the argument that you can’t miss what you’ve never had but broadband’s been likened to electricity in terms of necessity and I agree. It’s easy enough for me to go online, compare broadband and take my pick but there’s still a lot of people who do not have a choice of ISPs or no possible ISP at all. Because it’s not “financially viable”.

Doesn’t strike me as fair really.

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