Thank God for another good night's sleep with no physical repercussions. The internet was still down and I was obliged to spend most of the morning trouble shooting this using Direct messaging. This is difficult as the 4G signal is so poor in the front room where the fibre optic socket is located. The problem doesn't seem to be with my equipment, but somewhere away from the house. I started the process after breakfast and it took a couple of hours to get to the stage where I was given a booking for an OpenReach engineer visit. I had no alternative but to confirm the appointment, but within 20 minutes of doing so, the internet connection resumed. This requires me to go through the same rigmarole again to cancel, and I can't do it until this afternoon. Once, a few years back, I did need an engineer visit to install a new cable to the house and that went fine. The last time there was an outage the internet resumed while I was still on Direct Messaging. This time normal service resumed, when I was out of sight of the router, responding to an OpenReach text message on my phone about the booking.
In this system user must confirm OpenReach appointments but cannot cancel them without going through the service provider. TalkTalk now have a WhatsApp account for accessing the same messaging service. I tried to use it, but it requires you to install WhatsApp and refuses to recognise your existing WhatsApp account installation. It puts you into a closed installation loop. It's ridiculously bad, incompetent effort to provide a useful means of communication to clients. I wasted an hour and a half of my day Direct Messaging TalkTalk in a situation where 4G connectivity was weak and unreliable. The stress pushed up my blood pressure and I felt unwell because of this.
Sadly, the major obstacle to obtaining a better service is OpenReach which runs the infrastructure which provides internet services whether you use a 4G mobile device or a landline connection. Inevitably there are going to be times when the network is down for maintenance, but OpenReach doesn't warn each user of down times so they can plan workarounds. I wonder how much this waste of time costs the British economy?
Society has become utterly dependent on data services and apps delivered on-line. AI tools and the data processing they require consume vast amounts of energy which has its own impact on the environment and contributes to global warming. The infrastructure along which processed data is delivered, like road highways, get congested. Breakdowns and hacks can have catastrophic consequences, yet we put such faith in their ability to work the way we expect. In my tiny experience, when something relied on so heavily fails, the sense of being helpless and out of control in managing routine affairs on-line is most distressing. I think this entire chaotic setup is not a healthy one for its users.
I think it's time to make an effort to rid myself of the services of TalkTalk, and find something better, more consistently stable. I've started looking at the U-Switch website, and when Owain comes next week I'll enlist his help to find a suitable account to deliver the services I need, and make the change.
It's rained for most of the day, often heavily. I needed fresh air and exercise., but walking in waterproof trousers, managing a brolly with a broken spoke in strong gusts of wind, led to more broken spokes. Not only were drains and gutters flooded but pavements too. Un-mended potholes were driven through with no concern for pedestrians and soaking them. It was daunting. I went out before sunset after finally cancelling tomorrow's OpenReach engineer house visit. It was dark when I returned Some of my step quota was done pacing up and down the house instead. Rain reduced to light drizzle at ten, so I went out and walked again for half an hour to complete my step quota before bed, still wound up in reaction to the stress caused by today's outage. Hoping that a night walk and physical tiredness will help me sleep.
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