Monday, April 19, 2010

Back Online

After being disconnected from the rest of the world for almost three days Mitzpe Ramon phone and Internet service was restored sometime on Monday morning. It had been out since Friday evening. According to word on the street ("The Jewish Street"? "The Arab Street"?) the word was that some Bedouin youths had broken into a Bezeq switching station and tried to steal some fiber optic cable to hock on the black market. Instead, they managed to steal some worthless (to the black market) fiber optic router, which took Mitzpe Ramon off the grid. The authorities have aprehended the youths.

But still, why were we down for almost three days? All Bezeq land lines were down, including emergency services; merchants were unable to process credit card charges since they were unable to dial out to get authorization; the medical centers were unable to retrieve any patient records or patient information or test results. And Bezeq considers this an acceptable response? If this had happened in any large Israeli city it would have been fixed within the hour. This is just another example of the short shrift and lip service given to small Israeli communities in the desert. The Ministry of Communications needs to look into this, and if appropriate, fine Bezeq for their misbehavior. And while on the topic of misbehavior, exactly what were Mitzpe Ramon officials doing during these three days to rattle Bezeq's cage and get us back on line?

If I ever get the answers to these questions I will report back.
 

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