tv or not tv? update 3

tv or not tv? update 3

When I last blogged about the saga of our TV journey, it was early January and Mauro, from T-Com had been out and had given us a glimmer of hope that we could, one day, have fixed line internet. Meaning we could one day, at some point in the future, have TV like we used have back in West Didsbury. You know, the normal kind. For most of January, we muddled through with the fix we’d come up with, via a Manchester based company, where we were able to get UK TV via the laptop. It was a hassle and definitely not a long term solution, but we were pretty happy in the short term as at least I could my fix of Question Time.

And then, last week, out of the blue, Mauro returned. We’re still not entirely sure what he actually did, but it did involve climbing The Pole and we think it also involved “The Box” in the village. The one where all of the internet cables are and which we have previously told, “was full” – turns out, though, as we’ve long suspected, it wasn’t that full, as through some means, he finally managed to get us connected! Yep, after nearly 20 months of to-ing & fro-ing with T-Com, having to work with 4G internet (which was affected by weather conditions and dropped after a certain amount of usage, so definitely not ideal), we had FIXED LINE INTERNET! Hallelujah!

This meant we could, at long last, sort out the TV issue, and so back to the google searches to work out what the best solution would be for us. Excellent reviews were coming up for one box in particular – see here if you’re in a similar situation – and an order was placed on Friday 8th February. We assumed that as with everything here, it would take an age to arrive so didn’t get our hopes too high for a swift delivery. BUT, guess what arrived yesterday morning (Wednesday 13th February)? Only our new set top box! No bigger than the new i-phone, we couldn’t believe that this would deliver what we wanted – but with just a couple of cables to plug in, we were ready to go!

New set top box – and four solid lights on our new router. Success all round!

New set top box – and four solid lights on our new router. Success all round!

More 4! It’s only More 4!

More 4! It’s only More 4!

So, there we have it! Twenty two months since we set off on the journey to get fixed line internet to our house, and we are finally there. Maybe not quite as quickly as things happen back in the UK, but we don’t care now. The frustrating waiting is over and we are connected – and after nearly two years of Italian and Croatian TV, it feels so bloody good!

tv or not tv? update 2

tv or not tv? update 2

When I ordered the SkyBox – the one that I thought would solve all of our TV issues – I hadn’t realised where it would be coming from. But early on Christmas Eve morning, I knew exactly where it had come from, as we’d brought it all the way back to England with us from Istria. To Heywood, in Oldham. About 10 miles from Didsbury. It was dropped off unceremoniously – I don’t think Tom wanted to engage with me about the problems we’d encountered, on Christmas Eve morning, when all he probably wanted to do was not be in his soulless office. However, prior to leaving for our Christmas roadtrip, we’d had a bit of a breakthrough and this time Mike helped us to access UK TV. From his base in Wythenshawe – yes, we come all the way to Istria and we’re still dealing with Manchester based companies – he used magic to get us connected. So, we do have a way of watching UK TV, which is brilliant, but it’s still not the perfect solution.

However, when we were back in England, we got a call from Mauro, the engineer from T-Com. Out here, you get the same guy coming out to you, so you do get to know them – and this does make things easier as you don’t need to constantly re-explain the problem. My understanding was that Mauro wanted to come and collect the redundant 4G router – we’d upgraded the 4G service prior to Xmas and a new router had been delivered, which we hadn’t had time to set up before we left. We arranged that he’d come out when we got back.

Our main issue stems from the fact that we still don’t have fixed line internet – depsite the fact that all of the infrastructure was all installed way back in April. We did have it for one day, and then the connection was “broken” and it has never been fixed. The frustration of the TV situation finally spurred me onto doing what I should have done months ago, and I emailed T-Com head office in Zagreb, copying in everyone, in the hope that my complaint would hit the right person. SUCCESS! Just after the call from Mauro, two emails pinged in from T-Com, one after the other…

Dear,

we are kindly asking you to write us back billing account number so that we can make necessary check of your technical difficulties. We advise you to register on the Moj Telekom portal for access to your accounts and current consumption and administration services. You can make a registration through a link.

Best regards,

Dear Ms. Corr and Mr. Ruane,

We apologise for the  inconvenience You  experienced  when activating our services. We are letting You know that we have reported a connection trouble at your location, which should resolve the inconvenience. As a contact number we have set the mobile number 385993333797. Please be patient until the above mentioned difficulty is removed.

Best regards,

To be honest, we had no idea what the implications of the emails were, but at least they’d replied. Which, for T-Com, is a massive result.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Sunday 6th January – a big day out here as it’s The Epiphany and even though it fell on a Sunday this year, it’s still a public holiday. You know, the kind of day when no-one is working. Not Mauro, however, who rocked up with all of his kit and set about doing what he needed to do – to get our fixed line reinstated… Yep, that email to Zagreb had worked and he’d been sent out to resolve the problem! Almost ten months later, we have a glimmer of a hope that we can soon have normal internet access.

We’re not quite there yet. We now have a landline, with a Croatian number – and we are now awaiting, with bated breath, a call from Mauro’s colleague, who will assess whether this line can be upgraded to accommodate broadband. And if it can, that means that all of our TV problems are sorted! We’re trying not to be too excited about this unexpected situation, but we now have another router, and it has to be said, the lights all seem to be lit up correctly. To be continued…

the saga of the internet…

the saga of the internet…

Initially, it seems that *everything* in Croatia is complicated and fraught with much dramarama. Getting utility bills put into your name, buying a car, finding where to buy paint and white goods and furniture, getting car & house insurance, knowing how to hop across borders, opening a bank account, arranging a mobile phone, getting residency status, understanding Croatian instructions when putting together flatpack furniture. But, once you’ve done something once, maybe twice, you get the hang of it and all of a sudden we’re coasting along, thinking we’re very almost Croatian. But then our nemesis raises its head and we realise that one thing has alluded us. One thing we just cannot crack…

That’s right. Broadband. In May of last year (2017!) the broadband cable was finally fitted and for about 12 hours we had super speedy broadband. Oh, how wonderful those 12 hours were! But it didn’t last as, after much harassing of our provider, we found out that the “box” which housed the cables to all of the other houses in the village was FULL and our skinny wire couldn’t possibly have fitted into it. Hence, a huge pole had to be erected, the villagers consulted re the wire crossing across different people’s land, and eventually the wire drilled into the house – only for a “fault” to rear its head. And no, no more work could be done because apparently the Internet Gods in Zagreb had allocated a budget to our project, which had now been spent, and nothing more could be done. Even blatant attempts at bribery proved fruitless. Showing at least, that our telecoms engineers are nothing, if not honest.

So, for a year and a bit, the solution has been a satellite dish for TV and a 4G router for internet access. We’ve managed – although designing websites has been a bit frustrating at times. TV is something we are still getting our heads around – and no matter what you think of the state of TV in the UK, be grateful. Very grateful. Croatian TV (apart from some UK imports – thank goodness for Midsomer Murders & Death in Paradise) is nuts. It’s on a par with Italian TV – which is our only respite when the Croatian programmes become too insane. We can stream & download, but the 4G internet is limited on a monthly basis – we’ve so far never reached the limit, but after being used to just having broadband in Didsbury, it is, well, a bit limiting.

Our problem is that broadband apparently cannot reach our house at the moment – although conversations with T-Com (the state provider), suggest that technological advancements are being made and we will eventually have it. But no-one knows when this will be. And, although there are new companies in Croatia who are offering the installation of broadband, like with BT, everything ultimately goes through T-Com, so we just keep hitting the same stumbling blocks.

However, after much investigation, I have found a UK company who can provide us with satellite broadband. It seems a completely bonkers way of getting fast internet to the house, but once we have this we can then investigate the TV set-up. God knows if it will work, but we have to give it a try.

And given that we’ve successfully cracked most things we’ve encountered, we think that very soon we’ll crack this too and that like the rest of you, we’ll soon be lapping up Strictly Come Dancing 😉