Paul Schlyter wrote:
That should have been phrased as e.g.: "I lived in Southeast Asia
in 1982, where there was no Internet at that time."
In colloquial English, if one says, "I lived at my grandparents' house
at the time, and *there was no phone service*," one does not mean that
there was no phone service at all anywhere at the time--just at that
house. It's common usage for native speakers, but not, I suspect, for
others.
I suspect if Davoud were writing a formal paper, he would have been more
precise, in just the fashion you describe. In any event, it's really
just a trivial matter:
A reasonable reader could easily interpret that as I meant it -- that
there was no Internet in SE Asia.
Assuming that the reader can read the writer's mind has its risks.... :-)
Not in this case, since even if he did have the Internet, it wouldn't
have materially helped Davoud gain the information he needed--he would
have been better off telephoning someone.