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Kimpatsu Hekigan

Apr 27, 2005, 10:39 AM

Post #1 of 5 (1001 views)

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Degrading VoIP in Mexico under scrutiny by White House trade office

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Here's an article about the VoIP situation in Mexico entitled "Mexico telephone operator under VoIP fire."

Lede is:

Quote

Broadband customers of Mexico's dominant telephone operator say the quality of their voice over Internet Protocol calls has tanked, with some alleging that Telmex is engaging in unfair business practices to block VoIP competition.

http://news.zdnet.com/...1035_22-5681542.html

-- K.H.

Before enlightenment: Chop wood, haul water.
After enlightenment: Chop wood, haul water.

Chumley

Apr 28, 2005, 9:17 AM

Post #2 of 5 (960 views)

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Re: [kimpatsu_hekigan] Degrading VoIP in Mexico under scrutiny by White House trade office

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Now there is hard evidence about the problems those of us who use Vonage and Telmex DSL have experienced in the last month is all the fault of Telmex itself. When the subject first came up, posters in Matzatlan and Baja reported problems, and my first post comment was that in SMA, we were not having any difficulty. Then the s*** hit the fan. On March 30, a Telmex line crew cut our phone connection to the house completely. It took eight days, and two mordidas to get our local service turned back on. But, lo and behold, not DSL. Despite daily telephone calls to DF about our problem, personal visits to the local manager of Telmex, repeated promises that a technican would visit to check out the problem, nothing was done for 23 days. On day 24, I went to Telecable, our local TV cable company and ordered their Broadband service.

It was installed within 24 hours. At first we thought our problems were over, but four days later, the cable company's service crashed. The difference between the problem with Telmex and Telecable were like night and day, however. The Telmex problem was personally related to our specific service. The Telecable problem was systemwide. Telmex never fixed the problem. Telecable had their service up and running in 18 hours.

Our next battle is with trying to get out of our Prodigy contract which has another year to run (at about $60 US a month). Others who have tried to cancel fought the good fight for over three months before Telmex gave in. Others went to Profeco, the consumer agency, and had them fight the battle. One friend who won that way said it appeared that Telmex had an attorney stationed permanently at the Profeco office in Celaya because of the number of complaints.

I guess the best advice to anyone else using Telmex DSL is to prepare for the worst or, better yet, bail out and get alternative service from your cable TV company. At least they are not concerned about someone using their service for other purposes besides Internet use.

Papirex

Apr 28, 2005, 10:06 AM

Post #3 of 5 (951 views)

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Re: [Chumley] Degrading VoIP in Mexico under scrutiny by White House trade office

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I have been using a cable Internet service for three years here in Cuernavaca. I sure glad I didn’t go with Infinitum. I get about 50 % more than I am paying for usually. I am paying for 256 download, and 128 upload speeds. Whenever I check the speeds I am actually getting, it is usually about 380 download, and 180 upload. Sometimes the speeds are considerably higher; twice I actually got 502 download speeds.

Sometimes the speeds drop to about 200 download, and 70 upload, but if I run the tests again right after that happens, I get my usual speeds again. The occasional slowdowns seem to be only momentary, and are not noticeable while I’m using any of our computers.

There are occasional problems, but Telecable is good at fixing them promptly when I call them. I do have problems sometimes with Vonage, so I don’t think all the problems with VoIP are related to the broadband speeds. A couple of months ago, my broadband service really slowed down for a month, I was only getting 70 upload speed before they fixed it. During that month, my Vonage phone worked perfectly, with no problems. Go figure.

I’m really satisfied with cable Internet service here. It is cheaper that Infinitum too. Telecable furnishes the modem at no cost; there is no equipment to buy. It has been a couple of years since I crunched the numbers, but I was paying $31 USD then. My Internet service is on the same bill with our cable television service. We pay it with a US credit card. A problem is that they never send me a statement, and my credit card simply lists the amount paid.

I need to call the cable company to get a current breakdown on the prices for the separate services. Currently, we are paying $82 USD per month for broadband Internet, and TV cable services, with some premium TV channels. I’m happy with that.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

(This post was edited by RexC on Apr 28, 2005, 10:59 AM)

johanson / Moderator

Apr 29, 2005, 7:57 AM

Post #4 of 5 (912 views)

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Re: [RexC] Degrading VoIP in Mexico under scrutiny by White House trade office

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My Prodigy 256 down and 128 up usually gives me about 211 down and 68 up when I check at www.dslpreports.com or about 82% of the advertised download speed and about 53% of the upload speed.

I also have Laguna wireless, a 512 by 512 connection Usually I get up and downs in the high 480s or low 490s, which is in the 90-95% range of the advertised speed. Like you Rex, sometimes my speeds are much lower, for a few seconds but when I test again they are back to normal.

(This post was edited by johanson on Apr 29, 2005, 8:59 AM)

Papirex

Apr 29, 2005, 8:54 AM

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Re: [johanson] Degrading VoIP in Mexico under scrutiny by White House trade office

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Pete, I have used www.dslreports.com and www.pcpitstop.com to check my speeds, they both report my speeds in the same range. I have read the posts here that most people are getting slower than advertised speeds with their high speed Internet connections. I am happily amazed at the speeds I actually get. My service provider here is Telecable de Morelos. I originally signed up for 128 Mps service, then they had a special sale for customers that were also using their TV cable service, for an additional $4 US Bucks per month I upgraded to 256. They also offer 512, and 1000 speeds. As a private user, I’m not uploading or downloading huge files, so 256 service is plenty OK for me, and Vonage usually works well enough.

High speed Internet service was not available from any service provider in the Fraccionamiento of Burgos that we lived in when we first moved to Cuernavaca. I was using a Prodigy dial up connection, and considering getting a second dedicated phone line for the computers. When we moved to another area in a Colonia, cable, and Infinitum was available. At approximately $31 US Bucks per month for cable internet service, I’m paying about the same amount for cable broadband as I would be paying for a separate phone line and continuing with dial up. I was also able to create a wireless home network LAN so we can use more than one computer at the same time, rather than needing to use them one at a time connected with a wire, with a dial up service.

Like everything else in Mexico, I’m sure that the great speeds I get here, are specific to this area, and the company I use. It looks to me like most areas in The Republic are not as lucky as we are regarding actual high speed Internet speeds.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

(This post was edited by RexC on Apr 29, 2005, 8:58 AM)