Discussion
Today's rural-internet-sucks adventure is that I got a phone call telling me that my internet is out because of a train derailment somewhere in western Canada (which I cannot find in the news... super weird.)
Yes, this is why people are using foreign-owned Nazi billionaire companies for their internet (no, I will not use Starlink at my home, ever, for obvious reasons). And yes, I'm tethering off my phone to complain about my internet access. And Nazi billionaires.
4 hours after that phone call, my internet is back up! And I still can't find any news about a "train derailment in western Canada" like the phone call said. It's such a weirdly specific detail I'd really like to know where it happened that it caused my internet to go out for several hours...
perhaps they meant "training derailment", due to an insufficiently trained tech? :)
@sundogplanets I have no answer specifically, but Rail and Internet infrastructures have a significant overlap.
Internet service depends on fiber optic cables. These cables are often run along the same right of ways as train tracks, usually buried alongside the track. This is because the tracks go between population centers, just like fiber needs to, and the right of way is already established. So a derailing train could easily cut the cables running next to it.
@sundogplanets it depends on the severity of the derailment; most derailments don't make the news because they don't have enough impact to cause interest (and, unfortunately, rural internet outages aren't newsworthy enough :/)
Sounds like a minor derailment that knocked over a pole line that also had had a line strung on it for telephone/internet service? Based on the length of the outage that would make sense.
@msh Thanks for this. I am amazed how often derailments happen! I mean, it's still nothing compared with road transport, but still...I thought it was pretty perfect, I guess?
@sundogplanets
It's cheaper to run fibre now than electricity, phone wires, gas etc.
It can run in ground by the road by a ditching machine without duct, or in existing gas/water/drains, on existing poles or even HT grid lines.
Costs less than 1000th of Mobile to run. Even mobile has in reality more capacity per $ than satellite.
Issues are right of way, investors, subsidies etc.
Only ships, aircraft, & uninhabited jungle / desert needs satellite.
Fibre fastest, cheapest, greenest.
@sundogplanets If you need a proper 4G alternative (like I did here in Les Boonies) I can recommend getting these:
Both the above are currently sold out but they're what I bought and there are plenty of alternatives. You'd need a decent mobile plan too (we can get unlimited for €16 here in France).
a valid and shared complant
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