Internet. You can't live with them, you cat live without them.

I was about 16 when the Internet was very cautiously disclosed to me. I was personally tutored to create an email id, and taught about some safe sites such as yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail. Not a word about about Google or YouTube though. Come to think of it, I don’t think YouTube existed back then yet. And definitely nothing about what was then infamously known IRC chat, ICQ, MSN messenger and so on. But what are friends for if they don’t teach you the most important and useless things all at the same time right?

My friends and I used to gather around the PC to ‘study’. By studying, I obviously mean chatting on that nonsensical IRC chat and ICQ. Our internet usage time was strictly monitored, not only for safety’s sake and for economical sake as well. Internet in my generation came along with a modem and it was charged according to usage. It was also hopelessly slow!

Eventually, Malaysian telecoms grew some sense to quickly adapt to foreign countries’ fast speed Internet. There were internet connections with faster speed and better contracts. Meaning, it was cheaper to go online longer, but it wasn’t good enough, because we were restricted to using it only at home.

Today, every network available in the country has data plans and influential bundles, both for mobile usage and home usage. Sounds like you’d be connected to the whole wide world out there when you are here, doesn’t it? Might as well, cos every Tom, Dick and Donkey has a smart phone which supports data and wifi connectivity to get connected to all sorts of social media and so on.

I myself have got a data bundle on my phone, and a home internet plan. Perfect! I can be connected to the internet when I’m on the move and even while at home. Actually, not so perfect at all. Internet connections and data plans are quite temperamental. They only work when they decide to, which is quite rarely. Both the bundles have decided to take a break when I desperately need it. Here I am, falling asleep while waiting for a YouTube video to buffer and waiting for some pages on Google to work!

So much for fast internet. So much for bundles and packages. Whether it works or not is not part of its terms and conditions. Once you’ve bought it, it’s your problem and you have to deal with it, especially when it doesn’t work. If it works, good for you! If it doesn’t work, I’m sorry, but try not to take it too hard. Even if we know this is what happens, it doesn’t stop us from getting the best package possible that is advertised. Probably in hope that it would work on most days if not all.

Whatever evolves in this country, good customer service and sincerity will never improve. Why does it feel like I am walking into a huge storage tank of empty brain whenever I go to the customer service centre for help? Aren’t they supposed to know how to check data balance, or how to sort out this data thing?