If you haven't noticed, or are just starting to read my blog, you will have found out that I'm quite fond of computers and the technological world. One thing that really keens my interest is the Internet, and how fast I'm able to load webpages and YouTube videos. Back in like 2004 or 2005, my family got dial-up, which was the only available Internet service for us at the time, and it wasn't very convenient. Every time someone was connected to the web, you couldn't talk on the phone, and vice versa. Especially when "dialing up" to the Internet wasn't working well, then it was total shit. Speeds weren't great to begin with, but it was better than having nothing. It was very normal for any member of the family to start downloading a five-minute video and come back a half hour, even an hour later to see it barely halfway finished downloading. I'm not even quite sure of what speeds for download and upload we were supposed to be getting, but they obviously weren't the greatest.
About 5 years ago (I'm not even entirely sure when all of this happened, just complete guesses.), we were fed up with dial-up and looked for any possible wireless high-speed services available in our area. Our neighbors across the road had been with Bertram Wireless for quite some time, so we decided to ask them about it, and see how they liked it. We ended up going with Bertram, and immediately after they set everything up, loading speeds for everything were ridiculously fast. Everyone would start freaking out when even just a two-minute video would instantly start loading, with zero buffering. But somehow, as time, weeks and months went on, the speeds seemed to gradually diminish, but none of us were really sure why. We had virus protection on, so it wasn't like thousands of viruses were slowing down our computer. Soon enough we just upped the plan we had for Internet and it went back to the lighting-fast speeds (well, not "lightning-fast, but whatever).
Now, having been with Bertram for some time, about two months ago we were even getting fed up with their speeds and how often the Internet would sometimes act up, not connecting to anything at all. We decided to try out Verizon Mobile Broadband, as another neighbor of ours had it and they had never had any trouble with it. When we picked out our plan, which was 6 GB/month (realizing later on it was a terrrrible choice), we tried it out. The speeds got worse. The reason being the plan used 3G, and our area doesn't pick up 3G well, even though the Verizon assistant guy told us we were under 100% coverage from their nearest tower to us. Not even 5 hours after we set up their service did we return the plan and go right back to Bertram, which we still have today. Trying out this Verizon service made us also realize that we use a shit-load of data each month. I think in June we used just over 90 gigs of data. O.O I was actually stunned, totally not expecting that high of a number. So, we realized we were MUCH better off with Bertram than we would've been with Verizon, since we probably would've used up our 6 gigs within 2 days.
Unfortunately, because of our location, we wouldn't ever be able to get Cable or Charter, or any other high-speed service like those. At least Bertram meets most of our standards, despite them sometimes really pissing us off. :\
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