This isn't a commercial for UltraNet. Nationwide, many big national and regional Internet providers are making their systems more reliable. But plenty more don't bother. Such as Software Tool and Die, run by Barry Shein. STD, founded in 1989, was the world's first retail provider of Internet service, and Shein is one of the most respected guys in the industry.
Power outages are rare, but computers crash all the time.
So Shein prefers to spend his money on spare computers and competent engineers. This argument sounds reasonable until the lights go out. My last power failure was during last spring's blizzard. Before crawling into bed, I picked up my phone and listened to its reassuring hum, proof that civilization endured. The old Bell System spent a century and billions in monopoly profits to create the closest thing to bulletproof technology ever seen.