C&W Speed Problems
Jun 22nd, 2006 by Don Ray
From reading some of the posts in the Boquete.org files and assuming that the information is correct, then C&W’s decision to prevent its users from utilizing VOIP is the reason why speeds are decreasing. They are changing their backbone transmission protocol.
The Boquete.org post says,
They have decided to use a different method of transmisson, ATM, that was tried in the USA years ago and failed because it has no correction protocol for dropped packets, and eventually stalls out based on each end waiting for the end of the data stream to occur …. and it never will because of the dropped packets and the protocol is not “smart” enough to know this has happened.
The problem is affecting all of Panama since at some point everyone runs through/over the C&W network; the extent of the problem will depend on how “lossy” the data line is; of course going from Chiriqui to Panama increases the chances of problems.
I pay for 256Kbps service and I expect to get it. I monitor my effective speed using the utility MyVitalAgent. If you contract for a specific speed through your provider, you should get what you pay for. If you don’t know what you are receiving, then MyVitalAgent will tell you.
