Cut all wires - well, or so I thought

I (Olaf) will get really busy next week - I move to a new house. While this is a mixture of excitement and horror, now that most things are organized the joy dominates. Adrian moved just a few weeks ago, and it seems he survived ok. Christmas will be busy.

Last spring, when I started to plan this move, I looked at my job and made a descision: The time is up to have a wireless home - and refuse even the so-far standard last mile wire for telephone. Fixed line replacement, yes thats the game to play, and I decided to eat our own dog food and try it.

This was the plan:

• use only cell phones, with a local fixed line number ported to them for some
• go 3G network for network connectivity. Use WLAN/Wireless router with a 3G Card to cover the house
• Stream Audio and Films
• Oh, almost forgot, we need a fax, as our Jobs require lots of signed papers to go back and forth at times

Sounded doable. I have been using a cell phone and 3G Card for a long time as a mobile worker, around the globe, and am usually happy with it.

This was reality (I _really_ tried!):

First to go was no 3. The contract requires us to take and use cable anyway. Plus IPTV offers over 3G are not quite it yet. I like HDTV and projection, so I told myself thats why I have to take cable and give IPTV over the air a break.

Imagine my disapointment when I learned the cable provider does not offer HDTV or digital cable as well.

Then came the realization that No 4. was the next problem: Faxing without a telephone line. There are a few solutions in the market to have a fax proxy box that then sends out to the 2G/3G network. Last years just never worked. This years are promised to be better, but its horrendously complicated a solution (you would think it just connects an analogue fax to the telephone net, but hey, this one needs to proxy, set up VPNs, group calls and all sorts of stuff in the GSM net, scary). It is brand new, complex and the last generation failed - fax is mission critical for us, so thats a no go for me personally right now.

Ok. So I do need at least one simple phone line for the fax.

Enter bundles. Check out any provider here, all you see is bundles of phone, dsl and various flat rates. I spend about 15 minutes each in several hotlines to dig out if they even _sell_ simple single phone lines. Most do not. Other do not want to, and make that known commercially. It just does not compute, you are forced to take a bundle or end up getting less for more overall.

Sigh. So I will have DSL in the house and not do Data over 3G when at home. Here goes No 2.

No 1 - did I tell you the bundle contains free calls to Germany? Half of No. 1 goes. (I will refuse to connect a regular phone still, just to be a rebel).

Total bliss came last - I had to realize that the street I move to is new. All the "check if our service is available" tools do not have it, thus say "sorry no service". I can not count how many times I had to explain that to customer agents drilled to make this check their first action - and that there _is_ service, their tool just does not show it yet. I gave up on the smaller providers who could not handle this, and expected 4-6 week turnaround times for just a request if they can offer service in the area.

Ordering with the big players is not easy either. They suffer the same issue - but i persevered, called a few times, pressed lots of numbers to get to a human, found one speaking a language I also speak, and tried to order. Via phone they could not add the hardware I wanted. Thats only available online...

So online ordering. After I figured out that you cannot pick your price plan, then hardware, but the other way around I came to the "enter your future address" box. Oh no! They would not... yes they did "There is no service at that address".

Eventually I convinced them to manually book it in. Last status is "Due to our large backlog, we will send you a order confirmation within a week and let you know when we can start service within the next 2 months".

I move next Thursday. My fault. I should have known better. At least its healthy to experience reality at times. I know what we need to work on, and will not be surprised with customer acceptance numbers any more.

Eventually, we will get there. My house, for now, will have wires. If they connect them eventually.

Signing of for now, if you read me again, I will be back on the net. Merry Christmas, and a happy new year.

Olaf

Posted by mobiletechnology ( Dec 07 2006, 03:33:13 PM CET ) Permalink