by Steve St Angelo of SRSrocco Report
SRSrocco Report Internet & Phone… OUT OF SERVICE, The Shape Of Things To Come
Our phone and internet service have been down for the past day, including our streaming TV service. It’s quite amazing how much we all have become totally dependent on these services. Since about 10 am yesterday, our phone line has been off, which also supplies our internet service here out in the country. While this is bad enough, when we finally got to talk to someone via cellphone in town, they said our repair would take place no later than August 16th… LOL.
Now, it’s not only our phone line that is down; our neighbor’s phone service is also down as well. So, it’s not a technical repair issue inside our house. Unfortunately, it seems as if the service departments at these utilities are just STRETCHED out to the extreme. We use CenturyLink for our phone and internet because until about five years ago, internet service out here in the country was a luxury only for those who could get Satellite internet. And yes, we had Hughesnet Satellite service for many years.
But, when Centurylink said they could provide us unlimited internet service through our phone line, we jumped on the deal. Of course, internet service through a phone line isn’t HIGH-SPEED QUALITY, but being unlimited is much better than the limited High-Cost Data packages you get with Satellite Internet.
So, I sit here in my car in the parking lot of McDonald’s, which offers internet service to its customers (because the lobby is still closed due to COVID), to type up this post to all the SRSrocco Report subscribers and followers. As I type this post, my wife called me to tell me that the earliest repair would be August 16th or 19th. If they had any cancelations, they would let us know. Can you imagine that? An entire week before someone comes out to repair your phone and internet. And, it’s likely the COMPANY’S PROBLEM somewhere in the telephone line outside.
Regrettably, we got rid of our Hughesnet Satellite service a few years ago, as a backup, because we never used it. Also, I would be lying if I said that we had a lot of problems with our CenturyLink service. Besides the occasional internet outage, the service has been pretty darn good.
But, get this… we are in the process of selling our home and moving, and we have no PHONE or INTERNET SERVICE… LOL. So, this couldn’t have come at a better time (sarcasm). And to add insult to injury, our cellphones don’t work out where we live in the country. Thus, the idea to GET AWAY from the crazy SUBURBAN RAT RACE and live far out in the country has its DOWNSIDES.
Typically, I like to keep the writing on the SRSrocco Report website professional as the subscribers deserve it. But, I had to share this because I believe what we are experiencing is the SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME. Why?
The Falling EROI – Energy Returned On Investment of Oil (and energy) is forcing companies to cut services as much as possible to continue being profitable. So, when you call someone up for service or repair, it is typical now to sit on hold for 30-45+ minutes before a LIVE PERSON answers. However, I’d imagine it is still far better than living in some of the poorer third-world countries where no one will return your call for weeks, or ever.
As the world continues to add more layers of technology, the Falling EROI will make servicing all this stuff extremely problematic in the future. I believe we will see more outages and service failures that take much longer to repair and fix as the world begins to go over the ENERGY CLIFF.
Ironically today, I see that the Senate passed the $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill. Maybe they can do something about the Internet service out here… LOL. I believe the passing of this Infrastructure Bill will likely be one of the last large projects that the U.S. Government will be able to handle as we move closer to the ENERGY CLIFF. Hell, I would be extremely surprised if they can complete all the projects detailed in the Infrastructure Bill.
IMPORTANT: Until I can access continued internet service, I will hold off on any TRADE TRIGGERS or UPDATES. While I could likely manage it by going to town and getting internet access, we have so many things to do to move out of the house by the end of the month, it could get extremely frustrating. Thus, I will re-continue with our TRADE IDEAS once I can get continued internet service.
Again, I had no idea how much I rely upon these types of services. For example, it takes me a great deal of time to do research and chart making to put together most of these videos and articles. Actually, the research and chart making takes 80-90% of the time. Without the ability to have internet access to do hours and hours of research, it seriously impacts my ability to provide GOOD QUALITY CONTENT.
So, please understand that I will try to put out 2-3 Shorter POSTS-ARTICLES (no videos…sorry) over this week with the limited internet access, but I hope to be back to normal the following week.
Lastly, I spent nearly 1-hour replying to emails and comments before I started writing this post. So, after about three hours in this car, I will now go home and YELL AT MY WIFE for agreeing with me to move out here in the BOONIES… LOL.