A long wait to connect

MANY years have passed since we gained the privilege of staring into the expanse of cyberspace. In the early days, we had only one main player. Since then, more Internet service providers have jumped on the bandwagon. But despite numerous “upgrades” and “maintenance” episodes on all sides, there really isn’t much to show for their efforts.

I remember dial-up being very slow those many years ago but surely connectivity should have improved with all the other service providers in the market now? So where exactly is the problem here?

Complaints about lack of speed and consistency aren’t new. Every minute of every day, somebody somewhere will let out a disgusted sigh. Yet, we have not seen many improvements. Just as the world is getting bored with fibreoptics and looking at more sophisticated technology, we are still considering whether to replace our rotting cables or not.

The land line system has remained the same since the installation of a phone in the house 30 years ago. There isn’t much that can be said about improvements in our infrastructure.

Perhaps because the main Internet service providers are also telephone service providers, they believe the Internet isn’t their core responsibility. Perhaps they also believe their customers don’t have a choice and have to either “take it or leave it”. With this sort of attitude, it isn’t surprising that investments are not being made in better technology to improve the quality of service and draw in more customers.

The gap between the price and the speed of Internet connection is very steep. Yet, they continue to make more promises in order to sell their products. It simply isn’t fair to provide less than what was promised. Who is to bear the disappointment of hundreds or thousands of people who were led to believe that paying more meant getting more in return? If the complaints haven’t died down by now, then it would seem as if those in positions to make changes don’t care about their responsibilities to their customers.

We boast of Internet literacy rates and the number of “highspeed broadband” owners but the bigger question is “what percentage is happy with the service?”

So gamers and businesses, don’t hold your breath unless you want to turn blue in the face and pass out from waiting and hoping that the sheer mention of e-government will improve Internet connectivity.

Size really does matter despite what people say, and when it comes to the Internet, it’s all about speed and consistency – unless the idea is to sell the service to less educated individuals who know little about how fast the rest of the world is actually going.

There’s no magic tongkat ali potion that is going to miraculously revive the growing impotence of our Internet speed.