Chiriquí Chatter

Mar 18th, 2008 by Don Ray

I don’t know what is going, but C&W is completely worthless now. This has been going on for about 2 hours now.

Tags: Utilities

Posted in Panama Journal

19 Responses to “Cable And Wireless Is Worthless Today”

on 18 Mar 2008 at 4:36 pm1Sunshine

sorry to hear of your woes, Don. No ISP connection would drive me mad.

Does your net connection come in via a dish on the roof, or through your phone line?
on 18 Mar 2008 at 5:22 pm2Don Ray

My connection is through the telephone. ADSL.
on 18 Mar 2008 at 8:05 pm3Dennis in Boquete

Hi Don:

We have been having internet problems with C & W for the past 2 weeks. Last week during the feria my internet connection was out for six days. Numerous calls to C & W couldn’t get them off of their butts. They told me that they have 72 hours to fix the internet. They ran over by 3 days and believe me I’m going to ask for a credit. I have the highest speed that C & W offers as I trade securities. It was just awlful having to go to an internet
store especially when sensitive information is transmitted. I just hope Cable Onda decides to put cable to my area. People in Boquete that have cable internet from Cable Onda really like it. Plus, its a whole lot cheaper than C & W. People that have switched say that C & W are calling them all the time to offer better deals etc.. Why doesn’t C & W all customers a break that have internet service with them? They have lost credibility with me because of giving much better rates after they lose a customer.
As I’m writing this email to you, my C & W connection is running on snail mail…less than a dial up connection.
on 18 Mar 2008 at 8:13 pm4Don Ray

Well, this is day one for me. I hope tomorrow is better.
on 18 Mar 2008 at 10:05 pm5Pantah

Here in Boquete today I am getting 50 kbps not the 256 I paid for with CW. Usually I get about 200-220, so somethings defenitly wrong. According to the CableOnda website, their internet service is available in Boquete. I sent an email for a quote two weeks, but they haven’t responded. I don’t think I will ever adjust to crap customer service, but if any else gets a response from them, I would be interested in what it is.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 1:54 am6Bertha y David

bad day for us too with C&W service
on 19 Mar 2008 at 7:26 am7Scott

Does anyone recall if they had C&W problems in David on Friday, March 14th, around 1:30pm? A good number of ATM machines in David where mysteriously “Afuera de Servicio”. The Banco Nacional ATM in Romero’s (near McDonalds) robbed me of $80. Last month, I experienced the same ATM problems in Boquete and was out $500 for a couple of weeks. I was told that it was due to C&W problems.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 7:32 am8Don Ray

It appears to be ok this morning. I think I wrote a post the last time I had significant problems. Hopefully what ever maintenance they had to do has taken place.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 3:41 pm9serverseller

Sorry guys, someone thought the fiber between Aguadulce and David was copper and tried to rob it. Happened around 1PMyesterday and was repaired by 22:30. In the menatime it went via the slower radio link, hence the slowdown…
on 19 Mar 2008 at 4:25 pm10Sunshine

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).
on 19 Mar 2008 at 4:41 pm11serverseller

Un tarrifed dial up is available in Panama.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 8:00 pm12Don Ray

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.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 3:55 am13Sunshine

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.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 8:21 am14Don Ray

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.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 3:02 pm15Sunshine

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.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 3:47 pm16Henry

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
on 20 Mar 2008 at 5:11 pm17Don Ray

I agree Henry. The only wau to know if a wireless provider will work or not is to measure the signal strength.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 7:20 pm18Rodrigo

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
on 16 Apr 2008 at 2:18 pm19Chiriquí Chatter » Blog Archive » Cable & Wireless Problem Resolved

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