Getting Best-Internet in ‘Forbidden’ Areas

Hey cccmedia,

It wasn’t a super feat, sorry for any misunderstandings. The various departments are within the internet provider, with the municipality being the one to issue the permit to allow cables underground. This request must come from the internet provider. It wasn’t a special feat at all, here are the details:

First you have to inquire at all the internet providers to see which one will offer you fiber optic service to your home. They will look at their maps and determine if there is a close enough fiber cabinet to your residence. Netlife probably didn’t have a close enough fiber cabinet to route a fiber optic cable to your place.

If the ISP says it’s possible, then they have to verify if it’s technically possible, so they will send a team to determine this.

If the team determines it’s possible then you are asked to sign a contract and submit a letter from your building administrator authorizing them to do the installation.

After some time, another team will inspect your premises to see how they will actually route the cable up to the apartment and to which room. They’ll draw diagrams and such.

Then after that happens, another team will come to do the actual installation and run the cable up. It’s not a simple process at all. It literally took hours with guys with hardhats doing whatever it is they do including installing a box in the building (this is for future clients).

Lastly, the network technician will visit to install and configure the modem and router.

This took a little less than 3 weeks, 1 week or so was waiting for the municipality to grant the permit. My friend who is Ecuadorean played a very important role, because he translated for me and softened my words. for example I would reply something like “You promised internet by the end of the week, but now I know that was all a lie, if it’s not here by the end of the week, our deal is over, I’ll go elsewhere”, into “ Senor V.Simple needs his internet ASAP because it’s important to his livelihood, por favor give us the number of the installation technicians so we can coordinate with them an exact date and time to inspect his apartment.” If we didn’t call two or three times and week and speak directly with the people doing each task, I am 100% certain it would have token much longer. TVcable and Puntonet offered fiber optic, I opted for Puntonet because they have a 1:1 upload/download ratio, whereas TVcable didn’t. CNT didn’t have this service and I’m not sure about Netlife. The connection is stable and fast as advertised.

vsimple wrote:

I am 100% certain it would have taken much longer (without repeated calling). TVcable and Puntonet offered fiber optic, I opted for Puntonet because they have a 1:1 upload/download ratio, whereas TVcable didn’t. CNT didn’t have this service and I’m not sure about Netlife. The connection is stable and fast as advertised.

Fascinating stuff.

Thanks for including the names of TVCable and Puntonet as other possible providers.  Friends of mine have had Netlife install fiber optic at two different locations, so I know they have made it available where there is no wiring prohibition.

The dogged yet polite persistence you and your friend employed is a great strategy for dealing with the bureaucracy involved in such an effort.

cccmedia

While fiber is nice to have it is not essential. I have good success with TVCable here in Cuenca without fiber. I do all kinds of work on the Internet but do not have the need to download or upload large files frequently like some people do. The large files I do download I use a P2P client to accomplish. It takes longer but is not an issue for me. I get 3 Mbps down and .5Mbps up. They do offer higher speeds over coaxial cable but I have not found I need the extra speed as of yet. However the 1:1 upload/download that Puntonet offers with fiber is a plus and would be useful for me when I am away from home because I could more efficiently pull video and other content from my server at home. But I don't do this a lot, at the moment, so not a big loss.

The other comment I would make is that V.Simple must have incurred a significant cost to have the fiber run into his location. I have checked into having this done in Cuenca and the companies are willing to do it but you are on the hook to pay them to run the fiber into your location (i.e., because you are the first you pay the cost of them laying the fiber. Subsequent clients do not have to bare this cost).

In Canada, where I am from, the companies do not do this. If they plan on offering fiber service they will bare the costs of running the fiber in the street to your building.

The biggest problem I have right now is with my wireless connectivity within my apartment. There are so many wireless AP's in this local area that all this transmission interferes severely with my wireless connectivity even when I am standing right next to my Cisco M20. A range extender might help because they tend to output much more power. And because it would output more power it would override the signals from the other wireless routers. A bit of one-upmanship. When I connect directly to the router with an ethernet cable connectivity is fine.

MikeGB wrote:

While fiber is nice to have it is not essential. I have good success with TVCable here in Cuenca without fiber. I do all kinds of work on the Internet but do not have the need to download or upload large files frequently like some people do. The large files I do download I use a P2P client to accomplish. It takes longer but is not an issue for me. I get 3 Mbps down and .5Mbps up. They do offer higher speeds over coaxial cable but I have not found I need the extra speed as of yet. However the 1:1 upload/download that Puntonet offers with fiber is a plus and would be useful for me when I am away from home because I could more efficiently pull video and other content from my server at home. But I don't do this a lot, at the moment, so not a big loss.

The other comment I would make is that V.Simple must have incurred a significant cost to have the fiber run into his location. I have checked into having this done in Cuenca and the companies are willing to do it but you are on the hook to pay them to run the fiber into your location (i.e., because you are the first you pay the cost of them laying the fiber. Subsequent clients do not have to bare this cost).

In Canada, where I am from, the companies do not do this. If they plan on offering fiber service they will bare the costs of running the fiber in the street to your building.

.

Whether or not fiber optic is essential is relative but it’s necessary for us. The apartment we’re renting came with a 3Mbps down/.5Mbps up and it was impossible to use the internet in the manner we are accustomed to as latency, download/upload speed were all a hindrance. The sharing ratio was also abysmal.

Upload speed is not simply about uploading large files as a poor upload speed hinders two-way communication. For example, video chatting was frustrating when possible, gaming online was impossible and poor upload speed bottlenecks the internet when several computers or gadgets are simultaneously online. 

We can now use the internet without any bottlenecks to simultaneously:

- Stream multiple 1080p videos flawlessly.

- My son can play online games with friends on Steam without latency issues. Good luck with hitting a moving target with poor latency, or even being allowed to play on a server.

- Other computers/gadgets can surf, facetime (video chat), youtube , etc.

And again, simultaneously, previously we couldn’t even enjoy a frustration-free facetime even if we used only one gadget to access the internet.  As for sheer download speed, a 1GB torrent download takes about 10 minutes. Put it this way, the internet is not even a thought now, and personally the way it should be. We’re simply pleased that Ecuador has available what is pretty much the norm in many countries.

As for installation, the cost was $80, this included an Optical Line Terminal, Ethernet router and Wi-Fi  router. Clients who use more than 300 meters of fiber optic cable are charged more, but that wasn’t the case for us as there wasn’t a charge on the invoice. Sometimes they have promotions for free installation, especially on holidays. The only obligation is a 1 year commitment.