Could you live without the internet?
Could you live without a telephone? Even for just one month?
Desperate for a phone line, I used to drive three hours on
rough dirt roads to insist that Andinatel,
the phone company activate the equipment collecting dust in
Chugchilán.
It had been five years since starting to build the Black
Sheep Inn in the rural Andes and telephone service still
did not exist. Finally in 1999 my wife and I were happily honored
as ‘god-parents’ at a ribbon cutting ceremony when
Andinatel finally installed the phone system. A year later I
purchased five of the 16 private lines that Andinatel offered
the community; two of them for the Black Sheep Inn, one for
the local school, one for the health clinic and one for the
new rural police department. I knew that the Black Sheep Inn
would need a telephone line and another one for internet. I
also knew that local institutions needed basic infrastructure,
like telephone lines.
‘God-parenting’ the phone has been like raising
a child. I have often repaired lines when trucks and buses accidentally
pulled them down. It would take weeks or months for Andinatel
to send a repair truck. I have discovered that the Black Sheep
Inn’s two phone lines are coded white-gray and white-brown
and I now know all the color codes for the other 14 lines. I
have also learned how to cross lines, make party lines and that
the phone lines that we donated to the school and police department
have been disconnected because they have not paid their bills.
The villagers of Chugchilán have often seen me at the
top of a 30 foot ladder talking to Andinatel technicians through
alligator clips while trouble shooting ‘issues’.
I was even authorized to cut down 10 large eucalyptus trees
on a neighbor’s property with a chainsaw because they
were interfering with the town’s microwave phone signal.
My friendly neighbor insisted that I pay for the trees. In the
end I am still not sure if the signal actually improved once
the trees were cleared.
On the bright side, once phone service arrived and I designed
and uploaded a website www.blacksheepinn.com, Black Sheep Inn’s
business grew 80%. The phone and internet have made living rurally
much easier; not just as a business tool, but also making it
possible to research and investigate virtually anything and
most importantly, to stay connected to friends and families
from the remote Andes.
After several years of using over 6000 minutes per month and
paying high phone bills for what proved to be unreliable service
(the lines would go out for hours and days at a time and the
connection is often filled with noise and static); out of frustration,
I started to investigate alternative internet connections.
Although still expensive, VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal)
satellite internet antennas have come down in price over the
last few years. New systems in Ecuador cost approximately US$2000
plus US$200+ per month depending on bandwidth. In 2004 a tourist
drove through Chugchilán with a VSAT dish strapped to
the hood of his pick-up truck/camper. He was able to aim the
antenna and connect to the internet from almost any location.
I was extremely impressed and curious as to how this whole system
worked. Apparently he had consulted for a VSAT company in South
America and the dish and modem had been given to him as compensation.
I kept in touch with him over the next months and started
the process of investigating what types of VSAT antennas were
available in Ecuador. Investigating online with unreliable dial-up
was extremely frustrating. I asked friends in the states to
help me out by surfing the internet and consolidating their
research into emails. Second hand information never seemed to
focus on the peculiar needs of the Black Sheep Inn.
In June 2005 I signed a contract to purchase a VSAT antenna
in Ecuador for only US$1600 with a monthly rate of US$65! One
week later, the tourist with the antenna on his truck emailed
me that he had found a used VSAT for sale for half that price.
Oh well, I was locked into a contract so the timing was simply
bad. After waiting a month for guaranteed installation, I started
to wonder if something was wrong. The company in Quito from
whom I had bought the VSAT system said that they still needed
to configure the platform on the satellite. I had this image
of an Ecuadorian computer geek in a space suit sitting on a
‘platform’ trying to fix the satellite with a screw
driver and hammer. After patiently waiting 3 months and still
no platform the VSAT company refunded my money. Back to square
one and the dial-up connection was really starting to hurt.
At this point I began to pursue the used VSAT equipment, but
there were several problems:
1) The antenna was currently located in the USA,
2) The antenna was second hand and I would have to buy it sight
unseen,
3) I would have to install the antenna and aim it myself, and
4) The seller wanted me to sign a binding contract in the USA
for 3 years of service.
I do not want explain the turmoil back and forth to make this
purchase, but I bought it. Finally in February 2006 my brother
and family visited Ecuador and brought down the used antenna
and modem in their luggage. I struggled for a month to find
and fabricate missing pieces, install, and accurately aim the
dish at a satellite the size of a refrigerator located 35,000
kilometers away. Truthfully the installation went smoothly and
the Black Sheep Inn was online by mid-March 2006! YIPPEE!!
19 months later (October 2007) the satellite signal failed.
Because the VSAT was bought second hand, there was no tech support.
I discovered that I actually owned the same piece of equipment
that had come through Chugchilán on the tourist’s
pick-up truck back in 2004. The VSAT had been given to him with
no monthly payments and his contract stated that the VSAT was
not allowed to ever be moved from where it had been originally
installed, therefore it was ‘illegal’ communications!
So, just as I asked at the beginning of this article, “What
would you do without internet for a month, especially when you
have grown to depend on it for business and personal use?”
Ironically, when the VSAT signal failed, so did both telephone
lines. Back to square one. Black Sheep Inn survived, but tensions
and stress skyrocketed.
The original company in Quito still has no platform, so in
the end I contracted a new VSAT system here in Ecuador and pay
US$220 per month. I calculate that if the Black Sheep Inn uses
the internet approximately 12 hours per day that the price comes
to one cent per minute. I can have two computers in the office
and one in the lodge online, plus wireless for guests. The connection
is not fast, about 128 kbps up and down, but it is reliable…
so far. I am crossing my fingers. On the bright side, cellular
phone reception started in this area in 2007, but of course
the only places I can get a signal is standing in the urinal
of one of the composting toilets or flying on the zipline!
Modern electronic communications definitely makes the planet
smaller and more accessible; it can help people cross cultural
divides, but only if you have reliable access.
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