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MY JOB DEPENDS on me being connected to a high speed broadband for 8.5 hours every day, five days a week.
I live on the Roscommon/Galway border and my broadband speeds are not fast enough. I genuinely fear for my job.
I was really disappointed when I heard that Eir quit the State’s broadband plan. I work for a large e-commerce business and I need to stay connected the whole time during my shift. As it stands, my connection drops multiple times every single day. Eir was my last hope.
I’m sure my employer will pull me up any day now to explain the gaps in my availability. I have meetings with my managers over Skype video calls, and my ‘broadband’ cannot keep up. I have another one next week and I’m dreading it.
I’m at my wits end, I left my other job to do this one, and now I fear I will be let go because of my broadband. It’s an awful thing to fear losing your job all because you live in the country.
‘If I disconnect, I don’t get paid’
I started working from home in November because I wanted a better work/life balance. I had a long commute and when I saw the job advertised I felt like it was something I would be well able to do, with the perks of no commute, more time spent at home, less money spent on petrol (my bill was pretty big at the time), and the hours were a lot better than what I had at the time.
Previous to this, the extent of my internet use was having it on my phone, tablet, laptop and TV. I’m an avid Netflix fan, and yes sometimes the movie might pause due to the internet being so slow, but I had hoped it wouldn’t become an issue.
Once I accepted the job, it was too late to back out on a worry. I just hoped it would be able to keep up with what I needed it to do.
I contacted my provider and they reassured me that I was getting high speeds and it would be fine, but I feel they told untruths, because it’s not actually fine.
I was expecting things to improve soon. There was plenty of talk about the upgrades. Eir had mentioned where I live, people in the area had spoken about it.
I really felt like it was around the next corner almost. It was such a blow when I found out Eir was pulling out.
It has a huge impact on my work. If I disconnect, I don’t get paid.
Also, my employer knows if I disconnect, as it is all tracked. If I disconnect, I can’t use the tools necessary to do my job, speak to my colleagues or contact my customers.
‘Rural people are forgotten about’
I have spoken of my fears to some of my close family and friends, and they are all worried for me.
I’m very sad and fearful, it’s horrible. I feel like the people of rural Ireland have been let down, with broken promise after broken promise.
To be honest, I have no idea what the future holds for me now. I’m just not sure if it is a sustainable thing for me, given the issues I already experience.
I feel like my employer will come to the end of their tether too – who will crack first? Me, and leave? Or them, letting me go because I’m not fulfilling my contract.
I wouldn’t be able to afford to move, I also like where I live – is that what it comes down to? Having to move because in this day and age, we cannot be serviced by basic needs?
Ireland really is in the dark ages, and rural Ireland even further behind that. No transportation links, no garda stations, terrible roads, no broadband. All because of where you live. Rural people are forgotten about, because we obviously don’t matter.
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Oh great. Now we’ll be hearing from all the armchair experts with blindingly simple solutions that the programmers didn’t think of because they were too busy eating their liga and colouring in with their crayons. I can’t wait.
@8bitplebian: I don’t eat liga when I’m coding lol
@Scorpionvenomm: Sorry, Farley’s.
They should turn it off and on again
“British Airways HAVE apologised to ITS customers…”
@Harry Whitehead: British Airways is the name of the company, singular. The airways themselves haven’t actually apologised.
If you are going to be pedantic, at least be right.
@Michael Doyle: If British Airways is to be treated as a singular noun, the correct verbal agreement would be HAS, not HAVE. Try reading it again.
@Harry Whitehead: Exactly. That’s why your original correction was incorrect.
My heads hurt.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: Err…mine wasn’t a correction. I was directly quoting the article. I used capitals to highlight the mistake. Either ‘has + its’ or ‘have + their’.
@Harry Whitehead: Lol, show how much the Irish care about the stranded passengers
@Harry Whitehead: maybe the article has been fixed since you read it first. Further down I do see “British Airways say” , which is conflicting.
@Michael Doyle: Yeah you’re right, it’s been fixed.
@Harry Whitehead: That explains it. Now we can get back to worrying about the group of passengers that are/is stranded.
@Michael Doyle: *WORRY WORRY WORRY WORRY WORRY WORRY WORRY…*
@Michael Doyle: Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I’m glad we got to the bottom of this, gentlemen.
There’s some good deals in pc world, maybe they should get down there
Resilience and redundancy plans anyone??
Probably cloud-based….
Look up its an empty sky.
go back to old system with ticketing, technology is weak, all it takes is one system to go down and the hole lot falls down, flights delayed, or cancelled no good to people travelling or missing connecting flights! then they dump you outside the airport to fend for yourself!
@Stephen Finn:
There is a whole lot wrong with that suggestion.
@Nick Allen: and yet you aren’t arsed pointing out exactly what is wrong with it.
I think you will find they were hacked, but not admitting to the fact. It seems impossible that they would have no redundancy or contingency plan if a data centre was struck by lightning.
Hugo Drax involvement I’ll warrant .
The cancellations also hit flights to Heathrow and Gatwick, I’m in Miami and two flights from here today were cancelled. The staff on the desks said nine flights from New York were also cancelled, they were still suffering a lot of computer glitches while trying to transfer us to alternative flights with different airlines. I was in a queue for about 90 minutes and it then took about another 20 minutes for the desk agent to convince his computer to book me onto a new flight.
I somehow read the hashtag as ‘competence outage’.
Word on the street is the Indians screwed up!!!!!!
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