Not Oz. This is in Thailand, where the internet cafes were faster, better, cheaper, and more plentiful.
So I’m sure you’re all wondering why it takes so long between posts. It’s because Australia, despite being a great place and the only major country whose economy isn’t in recession, has a technology problem. They have the tech, don’t worry about that. However, they use it poorly. In a world where the prevailing usage is increasing and the future of media is downloading it rather than buying hardcopies, the entire country’s telecom companies have all decided to follow AOL’s model from 1997. There is no flatrate available at any price for non-business customers for cell phones or internet. Most of the highest priced home internet services cost about $100 and limit you to 20gb.
On top of that, the internet cafes are a joke. The further we get from Sydney the worse they are. I’m afraid to think what we’re going to have for service once we leave Queensland and head out to the sticks. The service at the cafes are pitifully slow. So slow that in order to upload one of our usual galleries of 40ish photos it takes about 90 minutes. So if we get behind, we’re totally screwed.
The cafes themselves are among the world’s worst. We went to one where the woman said we couldn’t upload photos or download music because it kills their bandwidth. She then offered us the use of (expensive) wi-fi to do it after 6pm. But wait! They CLOSE at 6pm! We’d have to sit behind their shop in the dark to use it!
Another one was really big, flashy, brand new and completely empty. Can we hook our laptop up? Nope, we have to use the PCs there. Okay guy, your shop is empty and you’ve turned away the only customers you’re going to have. We went to a place across the street for a couple of hours and kept an eye on that internet cafe and the guy got no customers. Not one. And this is why he’ll be out of business by the end of the month.
Australia: nice place, crappy use of technology.
