I have thrown out one carrier and changed to another. I went from Swisscom to Sunrise. For all of you – especially those who have entertained us with horror stories from Germany – who now think that I am going to explain how horrific the experience was, it wasn’t. It just worked. I got an SMS from Sunrise, when I would be able to start connecting the boxes and from there it was smooth sailing. TV, land line and internet came online, boxes responded, phones got their connection. Obviously I have done everything by the book step by step (not something digital Neanderthals like me are famous for).
I have thrown out three more boxes than I had to install and I had to replace a single wlan router. That trusty at least 12 year old Netgear, was replaced by a Netgear AC 1200 router and here is where a little rant starts.
Netgear, really, is it absolutely necessary that your Netgear Genie app installs in way the app starts automatically when I start my Mac? No it isn’t. That’s the first sign of crapware. The next sign is, that I can do way more things with the administration web page, than with the app (or I just can’t find it). Should it not be the other way round? It was helpful, when the web page was in an endless loop (!) and therefore it gained the right to stay. Otherwise it would have gone to the great cemetery of Bits And Bytes in hell.
I specifically bought this box, because it promised a high range. Well, my old Netgear lived under a cupboard and served internet with two bars under a layer of dust through the whole hut. The new one I had to place strategically on top of the cupboard, near the stairs to get enough strength. The 5 GHz is even weaker. Well, that makes sense since the wavelength is much shorter than the 2.4 GHz and therefore the range suffers, but still. My old router didn’t even have antennas, only annoying rotating LEDs I had to cover with a special cap, which was standard equipment.
Netgear could work on a setup wizard that does a bit more than just asking you to register with Netgear and downloads and installs that stupid app. I have the impression, that was my last Netgear product. I should have bought an Airport Express.
After a week of using the services I can say the following. We have more TV channels, especially we have now all the French, the German and more English channels, which is important in a in this French and German speaking household and it is more stable, it seems.
The Swisscom TV App for the iPad is more stable and easier to use. I have the feeling the Sunrise App needs a bit more bandwidth (or I have to blame Netgear).
The land line installation from Sunrise is better, except that I can’t not block phone numbers anymore. I would have opted for a FritzBox, if that was still an option, but Sunrise has its own box now. Pity!
The Internet Box from Sunrise offers more settings options.
Sunrise has more bandwidth for a better price.
But anyway, I want to thank Swisscom here and now for their service over the years. I especially remember the moment, when we forgot to pay my fathers phone bill after he died. Swisscom did not send the usual reminder, they sent a very personal and nicely written letter which stated, that they knew about my fathers death and where sorry to remind us, that there was still a bill open. Sunrise on the other hand was quite different. They sent three reminders and I sent, no sorry, FAXED them three times the death certificate and they still did not get it and I had to phone them again and again until somebody finally fixed it. Seeing how Swisscom changed over the years, I doubt that this thoughtfulness is still a thing, but it was something, I will not forget.