ETAPA Internet Update July 2012

Remember yesterday we told you that the ETAPA service technician said he’d be out in the morning to let us know what is wrong with our connection? Ok, he did show up and the problem was with the phone line that connects to the modem box. The tech gave us a new line and he left, problem solved…so we thought. 

We thought, “Great, the Internet is back, now we can get back to work”. I began uploading a new video to You Tube when in the middle of the upload the Internet went back out again, so it is not the Internet line; it has to be something else. The problem was solved for about an hour.

We called ETAPA again and the lady on the phone said someone would be out Friday to see what the problem is. Friday! But this is only Tuesday; what are we supposed to do until then? After four days of not being able to get on the Internet it tends to get a little bit frustrating and patience runs a bit thin.

We are asked all the time “how is the Internet in Ecuador”, well, there are problems with it at certain times. If you make a living online, we suggest move somewhere else; Our experience dictates we are not able to recommend Ecuador; the Internet is not reliable enough for us to encourage such a move for anyone that has to have good internet all the time. 

Over the last thirteen months we have had major issues with the connection on four different occasions, where we don’t have Internet for days, sometimes weeks at a time. Today is the fourth day with no Internet for us. Sometimes, mostly in the mornings, we can stream videos, but by afternoon and evening, forget about it.  It isn’t going to happen with ETAPA. We have heard mixed reviews about CABLETV Internet of Ecuador. Some have said it is better than ETAPA, some have said it is terrible Internet.

At the moment we happen to be using a CLARO wireless rechargeable stick, which we use for emergencies such as this. Down time is not going to get us down. We’re back up on the Internet even though our primary Internet happens to be out of operation. A guy from ETAPA supposed to be coming out again tomorrow…we’ll see.

We’re not giving up hope.  After all this, our idea is to order a second internet company.  That is, have two internet companies providing service to our house.   First we’ll have to see if they will install a second internet in the same house.  We will keep you posted on how that turns out for us.