I Switched My Internet Provider
It Will Not Be Enough
Just under two weeks ago, I wrote about how my ISP, Quantum Fiber, had been sold to AT&T. As of Wednesday this week, I had switched to Astound Broadband to take a stand against large companies that have been supporting ICE operations.
My new connection is faster. It works fine. And I am already wondering if any of this matters.
The switch itself was straightforward. My Quantum Fiber bill was due February 13th. I scheduled the Astound installation for February 11th. After confirming everything worked for a day, I cancelled Quantum Fiber in the day in between. The service dropped within a minute of my cancellation confirmation. I upgraded from 200Mbps to 300Mbps. My eero confirms the speed increase. I cannot tell the difference.
What struck me during the process was how invisible the politics were to the people involved. My Astound installer had not heard about the AT&T acquisition of Quantum Fiber. I was the first customer to mention it to him. When I called Quantum Fiber to cancel, the phone agent was surprised to hear AT&T’s ICE contracts cited as a reason. He was understanding and professional, even offering me a $100 gift card to stay. I declined.
This is what individual consumer choice looks like in practice. It is private. It is polite. It is largely unnoticed.
I have been following the Resist and Unsubscribe movement since my original post. I’ve also started following the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. As of this writing, the People’s Action network has collected 14,872 signatures. That is not nothing. But it is worth putting in perspective. When Taco Bell discontinued the Mexican Pizza, Doja Cat helped rally 171,00 signatures on change.org to bring it back. A fast food item generated an order of magnitude more consumer passion than opposition to corporate support of ICE.
I am trying to be honest about what I have actually done here. I declined to connect my OpenClaw setup to OpenAI because they are on the list. I have had Netflix paused for three months and will likely cancel it. I dropped Paramount Plus, though that was for their press freedom issues rather than ICE. I have used Lyft over Uber for years, dating back to the earlier controversies. I never paid Meta or X. I do not shop at Lowe’s.
But I am still a customer of Amazon Prime and Whole Foods. I still pay for Apple One. I just bought a new Mac Mini for OpenClaw experimentation. I signed up for more Google API keys to make it work. I have used Microsoft 365 and its predecessors for decades. The contradictions are everywhere once I start looking.
The question I keep returning to is whether this approach scales. Target’s recent boycott showed that consumer pressure can work. Their stock dropped. Their CEO acknowledged the damage. But Target is a retailer with competitors who sell the same products. Internet service is different. In my building, there are exactly three providers. Two of them have significant ICE contracts. The third may have problems I have not researched yet. There is no clean option.
Scott Galloway has been encouraging bank executives to take public stands as a way of attracting like-minded customers, even positioning banks who, as “luxury brands,” actively defend the “American Operating System.” I find myself wondering if positive incentives might work better than negative boycotts. What if we organized support for companies that refuse ICE contracts rather than organizing punishment for those that accept them? I know I would prefer to bank with an institution that aligns with my values. I would prefer to invest with fund managers who consider these factors. The question is whether enough people would move to make it matter.
This is where I end up. I switched my internet provider. It was the right thing to do. It was also easy, private, and largely symbolic. The real question is what happens when symbolism is not enough. At what point do we need organized, collective action rather than individual consumer choice? At what point do we need to support the positive rather than just boycott the negative?
I do not have answers yet. But I am starting to think the next phase of this is not about what I refuse to buy. It is about what I am willing to build.
This post was written almost completely by AI using my new OpenClaw deployment.
I also recorded a quick overview on my YouTube channel for those who are interested how I made AI finally work for me. It’s a little frightening, so I wanted to be transparent about the process. In the show notes to the video, I also link to a Google Doc containing both the raw AI-generated text, as well as my edits you see here. If you find that video helpful, please “like” and “subscribe.”
A pseudo-perspective: so my wife and I volunteered for many of the organizations that we felt helped to raise our kids to be contributing members of society: PTA, Boys & Girls Club, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, dance, swim team, football booster club, wrestling booster club, Susan is a Deacon, I’m an Elder in our church and then the kids were out of University, married, on their own and whew! Susan always had a knack for getting things done and if you were in her way, she figured out how to get your job. She got involved with the city via the ARTS Commission and Diversity Commission (no one had ever been the chair of both at the same time), big events, good sized budgets then the City Council got in her way. She ran and got elected to the City Council 14 years ago. She still has stuff she wants to do but in 2 years, she’s intending to let someone else help lead the city. No better humbling way to see how things get done or not than run for elected office and learn what you can and cannot do. The noisy gongs may have short term influence but the perspective for the whole is limited until you’ve been elected as a decision maker. Susan lost 2 attempts to the Mayor’s office because she didn’t want to stoop to the level being used against her by the incumbent. Karma does have a habit of coming around, eventually.
I do vote / support businesses with my feet and wallet on a personal level, but it is a compromise.
A recent YouTube post about the ‘Dark history of Weyerhaeuser’ tries to paint a dark past but in the moment, the author admits it was good business and visionary at the time! Lol. Their use of AI imagery is so obvious and laughable, it distracts from the intended message? Which I’m not sure what it is but stir up emotion? I feel my career has had a positive impact on a wide range of technologies, issues, businesses and people. And am proud of the small contribution and impact I may have had on your trajectory. Keep up the conversations!
This is perhaps controversial, or even a bit defeatist. I view activism and non-profit participation in largely the same lens. I no longer view the point of either to be about changing the world, but rather changing you. Measuring our impact here from an individual consumer perspective always ends in the same depressing, defeatist perspective of “what difference does it make?” But when I view it thru the lens of how it changes me as a person, there is room for a deeper conversation about my personal values and the life I want to live.
if you want to think about external impact, then there is the starfish parable :)