15 Days Without a Proper Internet Connection.....
I like to believe that I'm a chill person, pretty relaxed and barely getting mad but lately i toe the line as I reckon with the effects these last 15 days have had on me.
Today marks 15 days I've had no proper internet connection, you heard it right 15 days! That is about:
- 360 Hours
- 216.00 Minutes
- 1.296.000 Seconds
Now you are probably asking yourself, "If you have no internet connection, how are you writing this post?" I'm writing this using my internet connection from my phone, its a GSM line that is capable of 3g connection but come on, you know it this is Venezuela, the thing is barely stable and never goes above 50 kbs a second on its prime time at night, during the day it takes a few minutes to just load a Steemit post and if it has to many images forget about it! And worse, i have to pay every 500mb, because thats just how shit the service is.
Know you might be asking yourself, why don't you just switch internet providers? There's only one "reliable' internet provider in the whole country and that is CANTV (a company that belongs to the government)
Years ago they used to offer a decent service (haha who am i kidding? the top connection is 1mbit down 512kbits up) If you had technical problems a few years ago, you would just call them and they would be in your house in 24-72 hours and fix the issue... not so much these days, with the situation the country is in, all the wages are... to put it kindly, they are shit wages, no one can live off a minimum wage (around 3.2$ a month at the current exchange rate)
Last year in December i had a similar issue, I had 26 days without internet connection from December 2nd to December 28th (coincidence, the day i got back my internet connection is the day my steemit account was created) i managed to survive this 26 days because it was December i was hanging out at a cousin's house for most of the month so i barely had to stand 3 or 4 days without my internet connection....
You may be asking yourself after hearing that the company workers don't come to your house anymore to fix your internet when you call them, its simple, as in every country headed for collapse the most common trait among them is corruption. I had to bribe a CANTV technician to come to my house and fix my connection, aside from it being really hard at the beginning to get what i wanted through (you can't really walk up to them and say you will pay them) it worked, i saw him with his uniform, talked to him on the street and he came to my house a few hours later with his truck and fixed my connection, it took less that 15 minutes.
At the time of this bribery, i had to pay him 1.000.000 Bolivars, around 9$ at the time and around 3 minimum wages (for funsies as a measurement for inflation, right now 1 million bolivars is around 3.3$! just 3 months after) the worker was quite friendly and to a point you understand why they work for bribes, if they don't they would be dead by now with the salary the government pays to him!
Then you are telling me you can just call a guy, to fix your internet problem and fix this? why did you write 800 words complaining when you can just call a guy and fix the problem.... well the bribe guy is on vacation right now and he's on a different state in the country... he makes enough money through bribes to go on vacations and i can't even remember when was the last time i took a real vacation lol... He's returning after the 15th so i'll probably be waiting 10+ days more to fix my internet connection and break my previous record of 26 days without internet!
Thanks for reading this far down, i started to write this because i wanted to vent my frustration but i guess i ended up writing the story of how i bribed a guy to fix my internet connection, i hope this at least serves as a warning for people of how depending on the government for services can be really bad when there are no alternatives, i don't know what to say to you guys in lands with more freedoms other than protect them with everything you have and never give them away! at least i'm planning to leave this shithole by the end of the year or early next year if i manage to survive that long...
Here's a list of my other posts if you feel like checking them out!
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- The top picture was sourced from Pixabay, a royalty free image source!
It's a big problem here in Nigeria too, sometimes I buy data bundles that'll end up wasting because of poor internet connection, I feel your pain. I hope it gets better for us all.
I'm on the same train, wasting data because the internet connection is just plain bad.... I hope it gets better for both of us and for all of the people around the world that have to live through such a terrible situation when you are just trying to make a living and have some fun on the internet!
Where's that decentralized internet that was promised to us :P. I wonder if a mesh network could be created from people banding together or not....
I'm still waiting for my worldwide satellite internet connection Mr. Elon Musk... lol
Wow.
Thanks so much for writing this!!!
I seriously had NO idea how bad the situation is there!
Are you able to get exchange your hard-earned steem or sbd into your currency?
And I was wondering if there was another way you could get internet.
Maybe through a hotspot that you can carry with you which has worldwide internet.
I suspect that this could cost quite a bit but I am sure that there are many Steemians willing to pay for this (including myself)
please let me know!
Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
Its really that bad and i expect it to get worse and worse, since the country's infrastructure is falling apart and what manages to work gets vandalized or robbed. I've heard news of underground phone cables being stolen for the copper inside the cables and leaving entire communities disconnected from the internet and from phone services for months.... but thankfully i managed to confirm that is not my situation since the cable box doesn't look vandalized...
Thankfully there are some great communities that allow us to change our sbds to our local currency (i would never trade away steem or sp, gotta hold that!) and sadly the only ways to get internet that i know of is through the government company, that obviously has failed and the way i am doing it right now, paying for data plans that last 1 or 2 days. I've heard there's a company that provides satelital internet here in Venezuela, but aside from being really expensive, they don't have a good reputation either on their service (because guess what, they are owned indirectly by the government since its a company owned by one of the top crooks)
Right now i'm focusing on writing here on steemit, studying as hard as posible and preparing to leave when the chance comes!
Ok!
Thank goodness.
So you can make somewhat of a living from Steemit then.
You are planning on leaving Venezuela?
Where you headed?
Or is that a secret?
Even though the situation there is terrible, on the bright side, You found Steem!! :)
:)
Steem was a lifesaver! With the earnings i get here i can provide for myself and it gave me a lot of breathing room to focus on my programming studies on these last few months(hopefully) that i have left here.
My destination is no secret, i'm going to Peru :-D and yes, Steem is one of the few bright things i've managed to dig out of this terrible situation!
There's always something positive in life! I've joined so many communities and made so many new friends in these past 3 months :-D!
Niceee!! :)
Keeping my eye on your blog and your journey!
Thanks! I'll plan to document my journey when leaving and if i write a negative post about having no internet, you can be sure i'll write a happy one when i get back my connection :-D
Bah. Big ♡'s to you Luna. I'm sorry you're feeling so full of strife.
Thanks Amymymy <3 at least writing about it made me feel relieved!
Friend me internet by Inter, is not that it is a service of the other world but at least it allows me to navigate without so many inconveniences. Why do not you dare with inter?
They do not provide service on my neighborhood and they actually run on the same infrastructure as CANTV so it is just as bad.
we have a very slow internet connection in our country.
Oh man that is so messed up! It is a vicious cycle that you need to bribe someone to have them do their job but then I understand that as my country is as corrupt because in order to get anything done you need to grease some palms,
Hang in there Frogman!
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