'Internet in Uruguay' Technology  

Internet in Uruguay

Technology, Uruguay

Lee (201.221.2.79) -

Unlike someplaces in Latin America, there is competition in the internet field in Uruguay and you have some choices:

Antel Data (the phone company) and through its various resellers offers DSL

Dedicado offers fixed wireless connections.

Netgate also offers dsl service.

Dedicado offers a variety of speeds with equal upload/download speeds... ie: 128k/128k. A 384k/384k connections costs about $80/mo.

Antel's DSL connections have lower upload speeds, ie: 512k/128k. Their 768k/192k costs about $80/mo.

Both provide installation in about a week.

Dedicado has not problem admitting when the service has a problem and then fixing it.

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Comment #1 TexasGal from Dallas, Texas -

That's good to hear. Are there wireless hotspots? Can the traveler bring her laptop and be able to connect while she's in Uruguay?

Comment #2 Lee from Pocitos -

The international airport has free wireless. Montevideo Shopping and Punta Carratas Shopping both have free wifi in their food courts. There are usually a handful of people making use of the wifi in the malls.

A fair number of small restaruants and bars also off free wifi as do many hotels.

I have not seen anyone that charges for wifi.

Wifi is pretty popular with regular people... from my apartment my computer usually shows 10 to 12 or more wifi routers active. Fortunately most of the people are smart enough to put security on them so they are not open. Sometimes one with a sid of "Free Wifi" shows up.

There also seems to be a cybercafe on every street corner and they don't all have wifi, but will usually let you plug your laptop in.

Comment #3 TV Addict from watching television -

I can't imagine taking my laptop to the mall. But if that's what you do there, that's what you do. I'd be more comfortable at the cybercafe. Is there coffee there?

Comment #4 Lee from Pocitos -

I agree... but at the mall its free and plenty of food and drink selections. Not sure the cybercafes have coffee.

Comment #5 RiverQueen from EARTH, MILKYWAY -

That's great information to have. However, I'm a smoker and unless they allow smoking in the cafe or mall there is no way that I could do that.

I would definitely have to pay for my services at home.

But the information is good to know for future reference anyway. Thank you.

Comment #6 Lee from Pocitos -

Uruguay recent outlawed smoking in all public places.

Comment #7 Copeland from C-Town Hero -

I know they just recently got wifi in the mall in my city. I was thinking who comes to the mall with a laptop but there was plenty people there with a laptop. I really don't like to walk around with a lot of valuable things with me.

Comment #8 New toys from toy chest -

Wow! No smoking in any PUBLIC places. I like it. How is it enforced? Are smokers fined or arrested? I'm all for smokers' rights to ruin their health, but their smoke doesn't know to stay away from my breathing area.

Comment #9 Irv in Pocitos from Montevideo, Uruguay -

Wow! No smoking in any PUBLIC places. I like it. How is it enforced? Are smokers fined or arrested? I'm all for smokers' rights to ruin their health, but their smoke doesn't know to stay away from my breathing area.

Smoking is an interesting discussion. Before the law, you couldn't eat anywhere or sit anywhere without someone smoking in your face. And I mean that literally. After the law was passed, we personally have not seen a single case of someone smoking where they shouldn't be. Not a Uruguayan anyway :-)

Are they fined or arrested. Well, this is a small country and the only person I know who publicly flouted the law did so on a restaurant on 21

Comment #10 Irv in Pocitos from Montevideo, Uruguay -

part II..

the owner told the government to stick it and last time the country saw him, was on national TV being taken away to federal prison for an unspecified period. His restaurant is still for rent isn't it?

The president is an Oncologist... get it!!!

Comment #11 Lee from Pocitos -

Irv is correct before the law restaurants were a smog filled placed. With the new law it is simple, no one smokes in restaurants. They don't even try. In the outside patio areas they do smoke.

You don't see mass arrests or fines. An interesting comparison might be taxis.

In Costa Rica taxi fares are computed on the fly by the taxi driver. Sometimes they run the meters and give you a completely different price. Sometimes they don't run the meters and also give you an arbitrary price. Of course meter or not, the Costa Rica Taxi drivers never charge you the legal rate (or less).

In Uruguay the Taxi drivers always run the meters. They always charge you the rate on the meter.

I mentioned that to an Uruguayan and their response was "of course, it's the law". And, of course its the law in Costa Rica too (that the the Taxi drivers use their meters and charge the correct rate).

Comment #12 TV Addict from watching television -

Wait, wait, wait. You lost me. If there's not smoking in public, how are people allowed to smoke on the patio? Or does the law only extend to the inside of the building?

Lee, so is it a matter of level of enforcement and punishment?

Comment #13 Lee from Pocitos -

I suspect the law only covers inside, though someone else might know more. I don't think it is an enforcement issue.

Comment #14 Irv in Pocitos from Montevideo, Uruguay -

The law seems identical to laws in LA and Toronto, the only ones I've been exposed to repeatedly.

Smoking is prohibited in enclosed public spaces. From memory, that is the airport, hospitals, clinics, restaurants, stores of all kinds, malls, etc.

Like Toronto, I believe a restaurant can designate a smoking area if it is isolated from the no smoking area of the restaurant. Because of the weather and prices here, it's a no-brainer, financially speaking, to make that an outdoor section. Lee would know from sitting outside at the Costa de Azul, that's definitely a smoking section.

This country has very little enforcement of any kind... that's why in 20 years, I only know of one person who got a speeding ticket... and we ALL speed, ALL the time... whereve traffic permits :-)

I think the reason why people obey a law like this is peer pressure. Uruguayans care a lot about what other people think. I never met one who didn't... wife included. The concept of 'who cares' doesn't exist here. So if you're not supposed to do something, and it's a reasonable law, everyone obeys it.

Dont get the idea from Lee's post that taxi drivers are saints. Yes, they run the meter and yes, they charge from the rate sheet, but they've got some crafty ways of running up that meter. The best one I know of is the one where they take you along the rambla from the city to pocitos, instead of cutting through the back of parque rodo. About 1 in 4 drivers will do that to me. But I always smile and pay... Compared to the rates in Toronto, it's just a harmless game.

Comment #15 TV Addict from watching television -

Aha! Thank you for that insider information. I was getting the impression that the hacks were saints. Now I know that they're not. They take the scenic route to run the meter.

California is a non-smoking STATE. No smoking in any public building anywhere. And in Los Angeles you cannot smoke at all on the beaches and, I think, parks.

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