I may be getting hammered by the gods that load financial problems onto senior ladies, but here and there I am granted some relief.
A couple of days ago I got my 4G service back at home after a week without it. I am with EE. I was deprived of their 4G service after one of the recent storms - Eunice I think - knocked out the power to their local mobile phone mast. Suddenly I had no signal inside my house. True, I could stand in my front garden and try my luck. I might get a one-bar-out-of-four signal from a more distant EE mast while I shivered in the breeze. And I could hop in Fiona and drive off to places where the signal was excellent. In Brighton and other towns along the coast there was even 5G. But in my own home, nothing. That meant that I couldn't make or receive phone calls, nor texts. For a week.
I wasn't entirely cut off. I had an arrangement with Jackie and Kevin next door that I could use their Wi-Fi whenever I wished, although I kept that privilege for emergencies like this. So I could summon up the Internet as usual, and send and receive emails. Which for most purposes was OK. But it was no good for Internet banking, as my bank's logging-in process required a security code, texted to me. So if no 4G, no text, and therefore no access to my bank account. Fortunately there was nothing urgent to attend to. But of course there could have been.
Also during that no-4G week, the caravan was at the dealer for its annual service. And I wanted to have a telephone conversation with my doctor. Dealing with those things using emails alone wasn't so easy. In the case of the caravan, with expensive work to discuss and authorise, I actually found it best to drive over to the dealer and speak in person with the service manager. Best all round, because then I could be taken over the caravan in the workshop, and the necessity for this or that damp-proofing work shown to me. As for my doctor, she turned out to be on holiday, returning today, so we'll have that conversation shortly, in the ordinary way. Some blood tests needed authorisation; and I wanted to discuss my bad knee (another post to come on that, I dare say).
Was I inconvenienced? Yes!
Badly, as it turned out? No. But the potential for problems was always there, even if nothing happened that would have needed an emergency phone call.
EE were pretty quick to tell me (by email, which I got at home, and by text, which I picked up when away from home) that they had a local issue, but the nature of it remained vague until I went on their website and lodged a lack-of-service complaint, saying that I would be pursuing compensation. I thought it prudent to establish that I was suffering, as the outage didn't affect all of my village. It all depended where you lived in relation to other masts. I was in a dip, and dependent on one mast in particular.
Well, I got a rapid response from an EE person who kept in touch. It was he who told me exactly what the power issue was, and how its resolution was progressing. This is what I was looking for. Somebody to tell me what was going on, and how soon it would all be fixed. I wasn't too worried about the compensation, whatever that might turn out to be. I wanted a reconnection, and as soon as possible.
Three days ago I got my 4G back, or at least a usable amount of it at first, then a stronger signal. It's now good enough for all my usual purposes.
As for the compensation, I was offered £20 off my next monthly bill, which, when netted, meant nothing to pay. I accepted. I had experienced some inconvenience, but there had been no serious consequences. Had there been, I would have claimed rather more. But £20 was appropriate for the actual disturbance.
It's now been over a year since I had my landline disconnected and gave up home broadband. I've managed very well since then with 4G alone. But does this incident make me reconsider?
No, it doesn't. The same arguments for getting rid of broadband, and saving the money it costs, continue to apply. And I still have the option of installing a device that will pick up the best 4G signals in my part of the county and relay them to my phone and laptop. It would cost me something to buy it, and there would be the small ongoing cost of a cheap-as-chips SIM card. On the other hand, being portable this device could come on holiday with me, and give me enhanced 4G when caravanning.
The truth is that I'm not dependent on home broadband services for information or entertainment. I'm not a family. There's only myself at home, and I'm not a couch potato. I am certainly not prepared to subscribe big sums each month to have a massive choice of things I won't want to watch. So financially it makes no sense to have anything more than a good working phone that I can tether to my laptop when I want. Just as when I'm on holiday.
And considering the way household bills are rising across the board, I'm rather glad that I'm not stuck in some two-year broadband contract that I can't get out of.
