It's a Miracle

I don't know what secrets and/or politics lie behind our difficulty in getting internet service. I may never know. Right now I don't really care because we have it, but 24 hours ago was another story.

There are a few major service providers here: Hutchinson, PCCW and iCable. The last two also provide cable TV. Most people use PCCW for broadband cable and internet, so we gave them the first shot. That was who told me on April 7 that they would install internet and cable TV on April 9, only to tell me on April 8 that there was a problem: not enough cable. I don't even know if this is possible, but that was the story. Paul called and spoke to somebody else who hinted that the building didn't have a contract with PCCW and gave him, after about three more calls, a TENTATIVE date of May 7.

O.K., so it's our building? Paul called our building management. Nothing. Then he asked a guy at the front desk here. They seemed to be aware that people were having problems getting service, but they had no solution.

Then I went to Hutchinson (who provides our mobile phone service) in person. They don't provide cable TV, but we were figuring out alternatives for that anyway. I thought there was hope because the phone jacks in our very walls say Hutchinson right on them. So they must have the password for getting access, right? I gave them my address and they said, "We don't have coverage in that building."

This was at about 4:00 Tuesday afternoon. Soon after I tried to look up alternatives on the computer at Mix and got in a good 10 minutes before I was kicked out for not buying anything (I didn't want another smoothie!!!). Then Paul called and said he looked in his "Welcome to Hong Kong" info packet that Goldman gave him months ago, and it listed iCable, the other provider of not only internet but cable TV. He hopefully entered our address online and it came up as available. I didn't quite believe it.

A few minutes later he called and said they were coming over between 7 and 9. And somebody really did at about 9:00. And the whole time he was there I kept waiting for him to say, "I can't do this because..." But he didn't.

We didn't get the cable TV, but we have some kind of TV with, of course, about three nature stations. We are about to attempt the slingbox, so we probably won't need cable here. We hear it's not very good anyway - either PCCW or iCable. We also have a phone line because it came with the service. I doubt we'll even buy a phone, but we have the option.

So around 5:00 yesterday, I was about as dejected as I could be trying to imagine how long I would have to live without a connection. Four hours later, I had one. I have a resident's guide book with information like this, but iCable was not listed as an ISP, and nobody had suggested it before. And somehow, this was the magic puzzle piece. From near hopelessness to , "Sure, we'll be there in a couple of hours." Maybe they paid the builders the most? It's a mystery. I don't plan on calling PCCW to cancel. I'm curious to see whether they ever get back to me with a date.

I could live (begrudgingly) for 17 days without the internet, but I was most frustrated by not seeing an end to it and not getting straight answers from service providers who seem to cover everywhere but this very building.

Anyway, we're back. I hope we didn't lose our little group of readers. Now that this little kink is ironed out, I'll be giving you some more interesting stories, even if I have to make them up. I wouldn't do that.

Or would I?