Internet Access

Internet Access

I don’t know what Internet access is like where you live, or even where you live, but I come from the UK and live in northern Thailand. Internet access has come on in leaps and bounds since I first moved to this remote rice-growing village ten years ago.

In those days, I had to have my own satellite dish to connect to IPstar and for $100 p/m, I got 512/128. The state telecoms company was providing better speeds, but the twelve phone lines into the village were already taken.

About five years ago, many more lines were installed, and I switched. It suddenly became 7MB/256. Now it is 12MB/256.

I can live with that as it will do whatever I need.

Now comes the interesting bit.

Many areas of Thailand have free Wi-Fi.

I am sure that you already know that Thailand is not a rich European power or a superpower like the US and Russia, but two years ago, I was in a provincial city, waiting for a bus, and my Wi-Fi kicked in. The shopkeeper told me proudly that the city provided free Wi-Fi, although connections were broken every twenty minutes.

Brilliant!

Two weeks ago, while working on a letter like this to you, a new Wi-Fi connection was announcing itself.

Now, our village is tiny and remote, but the administrative centre for the ten villages around ours has put on a free signal for email and ‘uncomplicated Internet tasks’.

That means that you can look at a website, but not dig deeper. However, most people here only want email, ant that is now free.

It has meant that hundreds of people have been able to cancel their Wi-Fi connection, saving them $20 p/m or two days wages.

How does that compare with your local authority?

I cannot speak for my home town in South Wales, as I haven’t been there for three years, but I am proud of this and hope that other local authorities around the world follow suit.

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All the best,

Owen

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Owen

Owen Jones, Amazon Best-Selling Author from Barry, Wales, has lived in several countries and travelled in many more. While studying Russian in the USSR in the '70's, he hobnobbed with spies on a regular basis; in Suriname, he got caught up in the 1982 coup; and while a company director, he joined the crew of four as the galley slave to sail from Barry to Gibraltar a home-made concrete yacht, which was almost rammed by a Russian oil tanker and an American aircraft carrier.
“I am a Celt, and we are romantic”, he said when asked about his writing style, “and I firmly believe in reincarnation, Karma and Fate, so, sayings like 'Do unto another...', and 'What goes round comes around' are central to my life and reflected in my work. I write about what I see, or think I see, or dream... and, in the end it is all the same really”. He speaks seven languages and is learning Thai, since he lives in Thailand with his Thai wife of fifteen years.
His first novel, Daddy's Hobby is from the seven-part series 'Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya', but his largest collection is 'The Megan Series', twenty-three novelettes on the psychic development of a teenage girl, the subtitle of which, 'A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother!' sums them up nicely. He has written fifty novels and novelettes, including: Dead Centre; Andropov's Cuckoo; Fate Twister; The Disallowed (a philosophical comedy); Tiger Lily of Bangkok; and A Night in Annwn (Annwn being the ancient Welsh word for Heaven). Many have been translated into foreign languages and narrated into audio books.
Owen Jones writes stories set in Wales, Spain and Thailand, where he now lives. He is a life-long Spiritualist, and this belief is interwoven, in a very realistic way, into many of his books and storylines. If you like a touch of the 'supernatural', try his books
He sums his life up thus: “Born in the Land of Song, Living in the Land of Smiles”.