Comments on: Cable And Wireless Is Worthless Today

By: Chiriquí Chatter » Blog Archive » Cable & Wireless Problem Resolved

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:18:08 +0000

[...] to a comment from “serverseller”, the outage is a result of thieves steeling the fiber cable, in the Agradulce area, thinking [...]

By: Rodrigo

Rodrigo — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:20:48 +0000

yeah yesterday it was horrible the internet conection was 1kb download, and i have a 512kb adsl then in the midnight i cant enter to the msn because the same thing but the wear stuff is that the internet download speed was right

By: Don Ray

Don Ray — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:11:37 +0000

I agree Henry. The only wau to know if a wireless provider will work or not is to measure the signal strength.

By: Henry

Henry — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:47:37 +0000

Not to pick nits or start a war or anything, but don’t assume that just because you can’t “see” the tower you won’t have connectivity. Radio horizon is generally about 15% further away than visual horizon and there are many factors that can extend or shorten the radio horizon. Trees, buildings, etc can all block the visual horizon but may have no effect at all on the radio horizon. It is even possible, under certain conditions to have a radio path with a mountain in the way. This effect is called “knife-edge propagation”. The only way to be sure a wireless link will work is to measure the received signal strength. All that said, if you can actually see the tower, you will most likely have connectivity, though some of the same factors that permit connectivity when you can’t see it may prevent communication when you can, multipath propagation being a well-known factor. That’s what is at work when you get a double image on your antenna-connected TV. No doubt everyone now knows more than they wanted to know about this.

Henry

By: Sunshine

Sunshine — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:02:19 +0000

Thanks Don. Someone told me that Campana mountain is my best bet for broadband coverage. The lady in question is on the road up to El Valle, and she gets her coverage from Campana. I don’t know, as yet, what I can see.

But I have to imagine that broadband services are rolling out and getting better, very very quickly, across the entire country.

By: Don Ray

Don Ray — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:21:38 +0000

Actually cell phone coverage and Wireless Internet coverage are two different things. The wireless Internet will require that you have a line of sight access to the broadcasting tower. If you ate not too far and can see the Baru, then that would be one location.

By: Sunshine

Sunshine — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:55:21 +0000

Thanks serverseller and Don for the help.

Someone told me about mobilnet a while back, and that it might be the best option for my location. I do apaprently have good cell coverage where I am at, thus getting wireless broadband coverage should be straightforward.

By: Don Ray

Don Ray — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:00:26 +0000

Hi Server seller. I should have guessed that that would happen one day. Thanks for the info.

Hi Sunshine. If you don’t have ADSL from C&W or a connection to Cable Onda, there are a few wireless providers that provide high speed connections. Mobilnet is one, but there are others.

If you have dialup, there used to be multiple plans. I don’t know anymore.

By: serverseller

serverseller — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:41:13 +0000

Un tarrifed dial up is available in Panama.

By: Sunshine

Sunshine — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:25:41 +0000

if cable isn’t in one’s area, what are the usual alternatives?

I am assuming a dish on the roof; or dial-up. Is dial-up like it used to be in the UK, where the telephone company charge you by the seconds/minutes that you are online? (I know that concept will be alien to most north americans)

I am hoping that one gets a fixed monthly bill (regardless of time online).