Oh No! Not Again!
Oct 3rd, 2006 by Don Ray
My friend Jerry, in Cerra Punto, was coming into David today. We had talked last night via instant messenger on the Internet and made arrangements to meet today. About 7:00 AM Jerry caught me on IM again to reconfirm that we could get together. I said “sure” and he said he would be in David about 9:30 and would call me when he arrived.
About 10:00, I decided to walk down to El Rey. When I got there, I tried to call him. My phone said “Network Failure”. I continued calling every few minutes, always receiving the same message.
I decided to walk on down to Movistar and make sure the problem was with Movistar and not with my phone. After waiting in a long line, I was told that they were having system problems and hoped to have it resolved today.
Well, isn’t this just wonderful. If you remember, a previous Saturday, I had planed on meeting Jerry in Cerra Punto and had phone problems and we never were able to make connections. As Yoggi Berra would say, “This is like deja vu all over again.”
Luckily, when I left Movistar, I tried one more time and I got through. We agreed where to meet and I headed that way. It was now 11:30. When I hung up, I tried one more call and started getting the “Network Failure” message again. As I write this, it is 4:30PM and the network is still down. That will teach me not to depend on the phone in the time of emergency.
Oh, I almost forgot. His phone was working with Movistar. I use the GSM network and he doesn’t. He was trying to call me all the time I was trying to call him. While he could never get through, Movistar was kind enough to charge him for each and every call. Like I always say, Nothing is perfect. Some things less so than others.
Ugh, I am planning on buying a GSM phone to use. There are no land lines at the beach, and I have to hang out the 3rd floor window to get reception in the early morning hrs….so never depend on the phone is good advise. We will have satellite for the internet as I think I must have someway to contact people. Our 1 and only splurge.
Remember that you need gsm 850 band phone. 900 won’t work in Panama.