The Internet

For a country that prides itself on being so high-tech, their internet service is seriously lacking. I knew this coming here, having lived in Jerusalem when I was studying abroad, I was half expecting slow and flaky connections.

When I came to Tel Aviv, I expected a similar situation; I was pleasantly surprised to find that while the connection speed wasn’t as fast as in the US, at least I was connected 99% of the time…. until this past Thursday.

After countless hours of speaking with Bezek (Israel’s ‘internet’ provider) and trying to explain the problem-each time you open a web page you are initally told you cannot connect to the internet, basically we are having issues with the server- he informs us that we must speak to Zahav, another company who actualy provides us with internet.

Now at this point, I was just speechless and stunned. I did not understand. Each month we pay close $50 a month TO Bezek for internet. Who was this “other” company we were supposed to talk to?!

After careful research (aka calling my Israeli friends) I learned that Bezek provides you the router, while another company connects you to the internet…. God forbid ONE company does both! I mean that would be logical and efficient. And we all know Israel prides itself on being neither.

In the end, we still have no fixed our internet because, of course, after realizing how the “system” works, all the technicians were out to lunch, or on a cigarette break, or taking a nap… you get the idea.