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Friday, April 30, 2010

Internet Speeds

I have used Antel's DSL service for almost 2 years, now. I signed up for 2048 Kpbs service, with 100 minutes of free international calling credited to my phone bill (cost: 1463 pesos or $77). I never actually used the 100 minutes, entirely (which cost me 195 pesos/month) and frankly have never been impressed with the 2048 service, either. Now in Seattle, we enjoyed cable internet speeds (dramatically better than any DSL service we could get in Uruguay) for about $40 per month- so we have been spoiled.

So, Wednesday I decided to change my plan. I eliminated the international long distance (I will use Skype minutes, instead) and reduced my service to 1024 Kpbs (883 pesos or $46), just to see how much difference it would make. I will save $30/month, which is a significant amount, especially if you don't need something. Yesterday, I had to actually sign in to my new account, and after a few minutes of fiddling around, got internet back online.

Today was the first full day of service at the reduced speed. The result. Pages load faster and my download rate is as fast or faster than before. The conclusion- paying $20 more per month doesn't get you better service. Save the money and get 1024 Kpbs service.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks - I was tempted to try their fastest speed for a month to see if it made a difference, but have found that on signing up or changing it's quite a hassle getting their system to work...48 hours for this, 48 hours for that. On a positive note, at least they've changed their web site so that antel.com.uy resolves to www.antel.com.uy (which it didn't before), something that most web masters figured out in the early '90s.

~dr

Wally said...

I had to cancel one service and sign up for another. Only took a couple of minutes at the office and a few minutes on the computer. It's funny, but the first day, after I configured the new lower speed service, I could get some sites but not others. Oddly, I could get Google and many others, but not Antel. Then next day, everything worked- weird.