Rant. You have been warned. This post is a wholly optional read.Having just moved into my seventh apartment in the two-and-a-half years I’ve been in Stockholm, I have been witness to several different solutions to providing broadband to Stockholmers. Most of the apartments I’ve lived in have an ethernet jack built right into the wall, providing a seamless and quite blazing 10mbps, or even higher, much like in a modern office. In a few other cases, I’ve had the misfortune of needing to rely on broadband via cable provider UPC.
If I had a choice, I’d not be using them at all. But they are the sole cable provider in my building, and in the building I lived in until last week, and in fact in most of central Stockholm. This is a wonderfully incumbent position to be in; in fact, why not abuse it? And so they did last month, deciding to take away my beloved BBC [PDF] from the basic cable package. Want it back? Please pay more.
This product downgrade was met with apparent resignation by UPC customers, as if they perfectly understand that a monopoly position naturally engenders a diminuition of service. But it bugs me. Strike one.
I ordered internet access from UPC well in advance of moving into my new place, not wanting to suffer a gap in connectivity. But by the day I moved in, there was still no sign of the cable modem they had promised to send me. So I went to a shop and got one myself, plugged it in and had my broadband. For 6 hours. Then it went down. That was on Monday evening.
I called them right away. Unfortunately, although their service goes down at all hours, their phone support is only up during business hours. The first person I talked to, on Tuesday, told me to wait a day to see if it went back up all by itself. Strike two. The second person, on Wednesday, eventually convinced himself there was a problem with their service, and promised to send someone. “In the next five days.” WTF??
Had I been able to speak my mind, I would have told them to stuff the six month contract I had been forced to sign with them and that I would take my business elsewhere. But there is no elsewhere. DSL really doesn’t sate my broadband appetite anymoreUPC’s cheapest “broadband” is 128mbps for $23 a month. I’m paying $57 a month for 4mbps. .
Well, now it’s Saturday. They don’t work on weekends, not even for emergency repairs to their network, so it will be Monday at the earliest, if they solve the problem, before I am wired again. I don’t blog at work, so here is the reason why this site has not been fed the past week.
Instead, I have been relying on the quite excellent Il Café, a real Italian café in the heart of KungsholmenJust off the corner of Scheelegatan and Bergsgatan that also has an Airport installed on the wall, with free broadband to all comers. It’s a brilliant investment on their part — the extra business they generate from laptoppers in a single day should foot their monthly broadband bill. I’ve dropped by there twice a day this week to pick up my email — the barista probably thinks I’m stalking her.
Why not go for a DSL solution? Bredbandsbolaget delivers up to 10/1 Mbit or even up to 24/1 Mbit to most parts of central Stockholm. Costs around 400 SEK i believe.
I have a 5/0.8 Mbit through Bostream (owned by Bredbandsbolaget nowadays) and I pay 399 SEK p/m.
I wouldn’t use UPC/Chello even under gunpoint. Their user agreement is filled with more restrictions than actual usage areas – me don’t like 🙂
Yes, I did look at Bredbandsbolaget. But ordering their service takes 3-5 weeks (so I assumed 5, which would have taken far too long) and also requires a working phone number, which I’d have to order as well as I use my mobile phone and Skype to do old-school telephony. But if I know I am staying in my new place beyond the first 6 months, I think I will definitely order Bredbandsbolaget.
Monday update: They came and went while I was at work, and called to let me know they had done something and that I should check to see if it worked. I just did. Suffice to say I am writing this from the cafe. I wonder if it will take another 5 days to get aq repairman out here.
Fixed! The solution was to call often enough until you randomly hit the knowledgeable person on their tech support team. He was able to push buttons on his computer to turn my cable connection into a workable internet connection — something the first guy could have done a week ago. At least this tech person also made sure I am not paying for the week.
Hey, I just visited Il caffe (which I believe is its proper name) for the first time last Monday. Cool place (and the played Doves, which didn’t hurt).
But, yeah, UPC sucks.
cable providers are horrible everywhere you go. i ditched cable tv when i moved in november because berlin is at the vangard of digital terrestrial tv. i moved two blocks but they wanted 40 euros installation fee. really got me pissed so i opted out. i lost a few channels like cnn and mtv but i still get bbc and 27 others. best of all, in a few months my receiver box will be paid off and i’ll never pay for tv again freed from cable slavery.