The dubious honor of having the slowest Internet in South America isn’t something to be proud of, but that has been the awful truth for quite some time.
But why? What is making our Internet so slow that even Bolivia is beating us (even if just by a very narrow margin)?
BBC Mundo’s Daniel Pardo has tried to answer that question in this excellent report.
One of the main reasons is that there’s not enough investment in infrastructure, which can’t sustain the growing demand. Thanks to the lack of dollars, companies haven’t been able to improve their service.
The central government has been – for the most part – responsible for pushing this growth, and in recent months they launched two plans: One is about installing free Wi-Fi in public locations all across the country.
Fun fact: BBC Mundo’s correspondents tried to use this new service in three Caracas squares without much success.
The second one is relaunching the ABA broadband service from State communications company CANTV by offering new plans that go up to 10 MB of speed. But those plans don’t go along with improving the current infrastructure, which means the operational capacity of the Internet is slowed down even more.
Ordinary Venezuelan Internet users aren’t the only victims of this problem. As I wrote before, the Internet has become the place to find news and opinion, given the negative effects of the communicational hegemony. With the airwaves filled with shallow morning shows and no-news newscasts, Internet TV channels are now surging as alternatives. Yet, they find themselves stuck with a service where even watching a 5-minute YouTube video – heck, even reading this post – can be quite an ordeal.
Well at least you still have the Pneumatic.
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Totally OT, but your first link lead me to this article:
http://www.voanoticias.com/content/cuba-perfume-ernesto-hugo/2462779.html
*snicker*
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At first, I thought this had to be some sort of April Fools’ prank. It wasn’t! It’s a good thing Cuba isn’t just wasting all that money Venezuela sends it.
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Just for fun, use the following site to run a speed test on your internet: http://www.bandwidthplace.com/
Then post the results with your location like this…
Margarita Island:
Download – 0.72Mbps
Upload – 0.44Mbps
PING – 32ms
I think that the variations we see between inside and outside of Venezuela will be shockingly stark.
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Roy, right now I am in Warri, Nigeria. Here are the speeds from this backwater in Nigeria
Ping………3ms
Download…… 13.24 Mbps
Upload……….3.85 Mbps
If only I had that or half of those speeds in Caracas. Sigh……..
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Maracaibo (Intercable)
Download: 6.3 Mbps
Upload 0.6 Mbps
Ping: 2 ms
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Jersey City, NJ
Download: 7.44 Mbps
Upload: 3.45 Mbps
Ping: 0 ms
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Margarita Island
CANTV ABA paying for 2 mpbs download
Download: 1.52 Mbps
Upload: 0.39 Mbps
With the CANTV speedtest:
1.36 M
0.32
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Margarita Island:
Download – 0.16Mbps (not a typo)
Upload – 0.33Mbps
PING – 48ms
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Im not in Margarita, im in Maracaibo
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From a fellow Bolivarian Republic:
DL: 25.86 MBPS
UL: 2.30 MBPS
PING: 14 MS
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3789374889
(but this result is only possible because the president FHC privatized telecommunications in the 90’s, otherwise it would be worse than what you have in Margarita Island).
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I have problems with the wireless connection right now. That might be
the reason why the speed is so low:
Down: 20Mbps
Up: 1.84Mbps
PING: 4
(Brussels)
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Rural Trinidad & Tobago
Ping – 13ms
Download – 20.02Mbps
Upload – 2.22Mbps
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Caracas
CANTV ABA paying for 2 mpbs download
Download – 1.24Mbps
Upload – 0.44Mbps
PING – 14ms
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Margarita Island:
Download – 0.4 Mbps
Upload – 0.21 Mbps
PING – 44ms
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I’ll be working off of Maracaibo soon and have to do audio conferences and screen shares frequently. I’m anticipating so many hiccups.
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Washington DC
Download: 19.76 Mbps
Upload: 11.59 Mbps
Ping: 2 ms
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Holy crap. I guess they need it to keep track of everyone else in the world. ;)
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JeJe, I guess so, but I think South Korea takes the cake. It’s common there to have 100Mpbs, both ways.
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Just a bit of advice for anyone with really slow download speeds with CANTV ABA.
I went through this problem last March (downloads of 0.40) & actually thought I was being sabotaged.
The problem turned out to be a faulty modem not the connection.
Replace your modem.
They are cheap & easily installed.
In many cases this will solve the problem & put you back to my amazing speeds of 1.5 Mbps download if you are on the 2 Mbps plan. :-)
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I presumed that ever since the fibreoptic line was laid to Cuba, all CANTV broadband connections went through La Havana, where it was “intercepted” (just like the Russians use Lubyanka for in Moscow), and by the time the signals been to Cuba and back, things are just a little slow!!!!
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Download: 0.1Mbps
Upload: 0.11 Mbps (What the hell xD)
PING: 8 ms
PROVIDER: Corporación Telemic C.A. A.K.A. Intercable A.K.A. Kirchner communications corp.
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Damn! I am surprised you can even upload the CC page.
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Jo…eso es en Shamatëri, Yanomamö territory, in Alto Orinoco?
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Nope, it’s in once centric city in Lara.
Maybe it was just a shitty hour to navigate, the connection sometimes gets flickery like a blinking light, and other times it doesn’t work at all.
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OT but has anyone else noticed the 200% increase in Venezuelan billionaires under 21st Century Socialism?
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article2190879.html
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Houston
DL 35.2
UL 40.21
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Dripping with jealousy…
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Damn, now I see why the other players can destroy me so easily in online games xD
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Santiago de Chile
Download: 24.5 Mbps
Upload: 1.1 Mbps
Porn never looked as crisp
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Trying to make a phone call on Skype. At the moment, my internet will not support it.
Download – 0.56Mbps
Upload – 0.44Mbps
Ping – 37ms
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What the hell is the use of internet when you can’t watch Youtube, Skype, download anything, or watch porn? Things in Venezuela are really going to the dogs.
Anyway, Tokyo, Japan
Download 13.92 Mbps
Upload 12.9 Mbps
Ping 32ms
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Btw, with the internet speed so slow, I’m surprised you could even upload this piece ;)
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Barcelona, Spain:
Download: 48,16 Mbps
Upload: 9,95 Mbps
PING: 18 ms
It’s fiber optic internet, but I’m connected to the router via wifi, which slows it down,
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Thanks everyone who participated. I think that was actually informative.
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Ah, our old friend the bipolar capybara (AKA El Chigüire Bipolar) has an adequate article for the moment:
http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/14-06-2013/youtube-lanza-nueva-resolucion-sin-video-para-venezuela/
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hehe yo t tengo tu tlf pingado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClccTTkFA0M
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Chiguire!!!
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Even if they had the fastest service in the world, you would be a fool to sit in a public plaza, open up a laptop, and wait for your connection..Your laptop and perhaps your life would be gone before you could get to Google Chrome.
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