Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Almost there

Although Pamela is flying home tomorrow that is not what I am referring to. No, the long awaited event is the telephone line which is now getting closer. What a joy that will be.

Whilst the Wi-Surf connection is good for the internet at the moment it is hopeless for the VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone. Calls using it are cheap but the quality is so poor it is almost unuseable. At best there is an echo of your voice at worst the conversation breaks up so the recipient only hears parts of words. You end up having to repeat everything at least twice. I haven't tried it to make calls in Spain but I am told that they are even worse. Actually Peter Forrester Reed, ex MD of Wi-Surf, admits himself that VOIP is not suitable on a satellite connection. I just wish he had told us that when we had it installed!

I don't know about changing over to landline based ADSL though. It all depends how far we are away from the exchange. More that 5kms and it just won't work. Even if we are less than 5kms it may not be any faster than the satellite connection we have now which seems to average about 1.7mbs per second. Only time will tell. I certainly don't want to be first to switch over just to find I have a slower connection.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi guys, I have to say that I allways instructed Wi-Surf sales people to enssure that customers were awar eof the shortcomings of VOIP over satellite and I know I had that discussion myself with many at Bigastro.

I suppose the fact was that many chose to ignore it because they were, understandably, so desperate for some form of connection in a location where nothing else was available.

Sorry to hear about all the issues with your internet links since the Sat systems went down. I have heard that there is a move to landline based ADSL being carried ut by Wi-Surf and, having used it myself in the North, can confirm that the phone is very much better over it !!

Good luck.
Peter Reed-Forrester

P.S. If you get a copy of Round Town News or visit http://techtalk.inspirese.com, among many other computer/internet related issues, I regularly comment on the ADSL etc. market on the Costa Blanca - You might find it of help.