CAVEAT EMPTOR! Let the buyer beware!
This maxim applies to the privately owned side of internet industry here in spades. The people that run at least two of these companies make the carpetbaggers look like philanthropists.
Let's start with the ISP NG for no good (name withheld until I hire an attorney to tell me how badly I can be sued-but I will make private suggestions to people who need them).
Following a terrible piece of advice we contracted with NG for ADSL service. Fortunately, since we didn't fall off the cabbage truck yesterday, we also contracted with the State company, Anteldata, as a back up. Their service is excellent.
Anyway, back to the carpetbaggers, I mean NG. From day one the bandwidth was seldom close to what we were paying for, which supports a wide spread rumor that they oversell their bandwidth. (From my experience with it, they oversell like to characters in the movie/play “The Producers”. In fact, to completely belabor the point, their corporate anthem well could be “Springtime for Hitler”.) But I digress again. Sorry. If I don't make jokes about it I will curse and this is a family blogsite.
When asked about the bandwidth issue their response was that even though you buy bandwidth based on the maximum you might theoretically get (for two minutes before the Second Coming), there is NO Guaranteed Minimum, so even if it doesn't work at all, you are obligated to pay!
Even worse, we could not send email, even to our own mail servers, because the IP addresses they were using were SPAM Blocked! (When confronted with this problem we only got the Spanish equivalent of “duh”.) Later, of course, it turned into our fault–I'm not sure how, but it must be our fault, after all, we're paying for the service and not getting it. Makes sense somewhere to somebody.
So we told them we want to cancel the service, and despite my better judgment, we allowed as we were willing to pay the 2 months cancellation penalty.
“NOT GOOD ENOUGH ESTUPIDO EXTRANJERO (foreigner)!” Everybody here knows you pay whether we perform or not! We want all the money…
They actually expect us to pay for the entire contract plus two months despite the lousy incompetant service. After at least milliseconds of judicious consideration, I sent them the famous Mark Twain response: ” F**k you! Strong response to follow!”, but it may have lost something in translation…
They are not backing down, nor am I, so I guess you will get to find out vicariously how the civil lawsuit system works here…
The other ISP I will refer to as Dead, as in dead beats. They advertise that unlike every other ISP in Uruguay, the guarantee the bandwidth you are paying for. But the problem is, when you read the contract, THEY DON'T. When confronted with this contradiction, they tell you in very polite tones that it is their very best intention to guarantee the bandwidth. But when it comes right down to it, there contract says the same as NG's–they guarantee nothing! They may not know how to provide internet, but they have the “bait and switch” maneuver down pat!
This makes my poor free market heart sad. But I have to tell you that, as of right now, the safest and best ISP is to one owned by the government. Adam Smith, Forgive me!
Sorry to hear about the connectivity/bandwidth issues. I hope it all works out with the government provider. This is all good information as I have been researching Uruguay as a possible retirement destination. This is one critical issue to relocating. Internet service, reliable internet service, is important for us as well. Please give an update once you have things squared away. I am interested in finding out how it all works out. How the state owned ADSL service performs, the cost of the service and whether you are satisfied with it or not. Thanks for the great information. I have read your entire blog and look forward to updates.
Left by Enzo on June 30th, 2006
thanks again for sharing your insights and experience.in all probability,the only way to safeguard your business is to have a member of the ruling political party and the opposition on your board of directors.
Left by snowykarma on June 30th, 2006
The ADSL service for the gove?nment company Anteldata is pretty good, I would say ti functions very well 98% of the time. There is a noticeable derogation in bandwidth late afternoon when people come home from work and jump onto the net. We pay US$81 for 768/192 service and have two lines–one for VoIP and the other for browsing. I understand they also offer Frame Relay for bigger commercial operations. Internet is more expensive here than in the States, but it is getting cheaper, when I first started tracking Uruguay in 1999, a 256k line was going for US$14,000/month, that’s right, fourteen thousand yankee dollars per month. It has improved in price somewhat since then…
Left by The Southron on June 30th, 2006
I don’t think it is corruption. I have seen corruption first hand in Grenada and Montenegro and Costa Rica. Rather, it appears to simply be an underdeveloped consumer culture where people put up with more than is the norm in the States or Western Europe. This is certainly one area where they could do better. I intend on gently nudging them (with my boot) along this path.
Left by The Southron on June 30th, 2006
Is that $81 for each line or for the total of two 768/192 lines. Here in NH we pay more than $50 for broadband, which is supposted to be 6Mbps/384k. We don’t get anything near that though, especially when kids are home from school. They just started to offer fiber connections here through Verizon. $35-$49/month if you buy a 1 year contract, that will give you 5 Mbps/2 Mbps. Since it is fiber, it is dedicated point to point connection, not like broadband cable. We don’t plan on being here a year to commit to it. The 2 Mbps upstream would be nice though, we use VOIP exclusively. Do you have any experience with any wireless access points there? I know there are some www.fon.com access points in Uruguay. Surely the hotels have decent access no?
Left by Enzo on July 1st, 2006
US$81 is for each line. We use one line only for our VoIP phones and Skype and the other for all browsing. Wireless access points here are few and far between, although there is one nearby at Restaurante Nuevo Garcia, which has the best steaks in town. Do NOT assume hotels have good access–my experience is that it is at best intermittent. During the days I stayed at Best Western waiting for the house to become available I was able to get on their wireless network and use Skype, but not my regular VoIP service. Dial up is the best you can expect at most hotels unless you stay at the Radisson downtown, which is reputed to have broadband, but for which I cannot vouch.
Left by The Southron on July 3rd, 2006
Would you say that MVD has the best internet servicing options in all of Uruguay or would PDE have better choices? I would think that the internet providers would be best in MVD. That is the worst news I have heard in a long time, even more concerning than the rationing of electricity, expensive and low quality/reliability internet service. What VoIP provider do you use as your regular service? I don’t use Skype but we use Vonage exclusively. Which you can configure to use 3 different tiers of upstream bandwidth, 30Kbps, 50Kbps, or 90Kbps. Furthermore we use a modified linksys WRT54GS to prioritizes traffic. I don’t know how bad the situation is there for actual data rates, but it doesn’t sound good. You can test your upload/download speeds here: http://vonage.com/help.php?article=497&category=102&nav=102 I would be interested in knowing your results. We would not want to have two lines @ $81 just so we could have our VoIP phone and internet access. That is crazy expensive. But we would not be able to move without some form of internet service.
Left by Enzo on July 3rd, 2006
MVD undoubtedly has the best internet service in the country. Uruguay is basically a city state with very large suburbs. Even the phone books are simply divided into Montevideo and “Interior” meaning everything else. As to VoIP. We use Vonage as well without problems. I think we’re on the middle bandwidth setting. I would say it works perfectly 95-98% of the time. As to the price, you have to balance things out–since everything else is vastly cheaper, you can pay a lot more for internet without busting your budget. I also use Skype, as noted. It definitely works better on lower bandwidths. We are also checking out Broadvoice which offers free calls to landlines in Argentina and Brazil as well. Of all the places I have lived outside the country, the internet here is the best. The only place it might be better among the popular expat spots would be Panama, but for me the heat and humidity is hell.
Left by The Southron on July 3rd, 2006
Hi Southron. You stated things need to be balanced out. Could you give an example of how they do balance out? For example, how big (how many bedrooms) is your house and how much is the rent. How much is gasoline per gallon. Are busses cheap and plentiful or not. etc. How much is your electric bill and your water bill. Are four bedroom houses available and how much are they. Thanks for your helpsmily
Left by smily on August 24th, 2006
Buses are very cheap and plentiful, and taxis are cheap as well.I am renting a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath 2 story house with a small walledgarden less than a block from the beach in Carrasco. I have a smallyard, patio with built in BBQ, laundry room, and it came furnished(though no lavishly). My rent is U per month on a 10 monthlease. The landlord lives here two month in the summer. This was aperfect deal for me as it gave me time to look around at my leaisurewhile still running my business. This way I can find the place Ireally want to stay longer term and perhaps even buy.Our electric bill has ranged from U to 117 per month. The gas billwas U-15 per month except for the last 2 months when it jumped toaround U.The folowing real estate links from “The Southron’s UY Links” are pretty extensive. The first is sort of a multiple listing service, the rest of from indiviual companies.Please remember, that often the best deals do no make it to the internet.You will usually have three search choices: Venta-For Sale, A. Anual-Yearly Rentals and A. Temp-Monthly rentals.CASAS.com.uy - Casas, chalets, todas con fotos, venta, alquiler, Montevideo, Punta del Este, toda la costa de Uruguay This is the House site, it also links to sites for Apartments, vacant lots, and farms.Inmobiliaria Lucia del CastillointermedioSantestevan InmobiliariaCristina OttonelloPilar Quartino PropiedadesArbeleche Bessonart & Asociados
Left by The Southron on August 25th, 2006
I spent three months in Pocitos and stayed at the Hotel Marti. The people there were very accommodating in that they permitted me to have a broadband service installed. I contracted with Dedicado and had no problems either with SKYPE or trading the US stock market where I obviously rely on accurate data feed for my charts.
Left by Peter on September 1st, 2006
Hi Southron, thanks for your efforts to provide us with all this great info.
We arrive in Uruguay in January 07 and are looking for to our new life there. One question about your internet.
What is the download limit on your ADSL service?
We will need to use the internet for our work and need to be able to download possibly up to 10 gig/month.
Great news to hear your book is so close to being finished.
>>Unless there is something that has not come up in 8 months, there is no limit–I certainly have never heard of any.
Left by daviscup on October 21st, 2006