A Gold Star For Inconsistency!
Oct 21st, 2006 by Don Ray
One thing Cable And Wireless is known for is consistent inconsistency. Since about 9:00 this morning, C&W’s throughput has not been worth a flip. Normally my mornings are pretty good and the afternoons degrade.
I admit, I am probably a heavier user than most in David. I like my music and I get it over the Internet. When C&W is performing like this, music is not a possibility. Even a moderate surfer would think response time is poor this morning. Currently I am averaging about 50 Kbps on my connection.
I think that C&W provides the backbone for most if not all of Panama. If the Internet is bad on native C&W service, it may be bad for other providers as well.
C&W is not the backbone provider for Panama. At least here in Panama City you can get completely C&W-free phone and Internet service. The one I have for my office is from Optynex and it runs very smooth with 2 mbps over fiber optics cable.
Consider yourself lucky. I considered Cable Onda here in David and when it started here it had absolutely horrible service. A neighbor tried to use the Cable Onda service. The told him they were changing to using the C&W backbone. He tried it another week and gave up. I had thought that Inter.Net here also bought service from C&W as well as some other wireless providers.
Things may have changed. I have had C&W for over a year and the service is always flaky. Sometimes good and others not.
Glad to know “Stephan Schwab”. What do you pay per month? I can do with out alot of conviences…but broadband is not one of them!
I think Cable Onda is moving to fiber in David. For me I will put up with inconsistency to live in David. I am not sure I can learn to enjoy Panama City.
I will also say, if you are moving from the US and expect the consistency of everything to be like the US, you will be disappointed. The culture is different and getting things done can be aggravating, The grocery stores may be out of your favorite item. If you need tires for your car, the search might not be easy. If you need ink for a special model of printer, you could have a problem.
I complain about C&W but it is because I want them to get their act together. However if you are a Type “A” personality, it will be easy to find things to complain about.
Good points, Don Ray. I understand completely. When we lived in Nicaragua, we learned to go with the flow. We learned not to have unrealistic expectations. In fact, we were happier when we didn’t have any expectations at all, because we learned the hard way that expectations always led to disappointment. We learned to view life as one big mystery after another. It was comical and we laughed at the obsurdity of some of the situations we encountered. I wrote a piece called, “Off the Island, into the Steeler Nation”. It was about our adventure to find a TV in Nicaragua that broadcast the Steeler game. It was published in the Pittsburgh Post. Another piece called,”You Know your A Gringo When…” takes a comical view of gringos and expectations when living in a foreign culture. I’ve definitely learned to laugh at myself, which makes life much easier in a strange land!
Debbie