Yeah Gods! I live in the DR now - and it is Christmas!

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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It has been four or six weeks or so, that I've lived in the DR. Missed Thanksgiving altogether. Maybe we did not have water, or the electricity was off, or the neighbor's donkey kicked the dog or something.

Or maybe it was the 'gift' that I had to quickly prepare for the wife of the manager of the free zone - before I could get real confirmation of space that we were sure to get for the business.

Or maybe it was the time that I needed to go to 'our' local customs agent to figure out why he was charging me US$400 on a US$100 shipment of product samples.

Or maybe it was the time that we had to get all the neighbors together to decide what to offer the electricity fellow who refused to fix the electricity feed to 6 or so houses - unless a payment was made for his trouble.

Or it could have been the rental car that I had to take back for the sixth time - I figured out that a horn is really necessary, and our rental car did not/does not yet have one.

Or maybe it was the hours that we spent on the roof to get the broadband satellite dish working (we do this for a living!) but with no power, the commissioning process changes quite considerably.

Or maybe it was the day that we found a great french crepe/pancake house and stayed there for most of the rest of the day. Or maybe the day that I really discovered Brugal!

So, now it is close to Christmas and I'm wondering if I'm going to miss Christmas as well - and I really don't care.

Tonight is a good night. The power is on and repaired, the waterpump pumps, the gas is ready for the generator if the power goes out, the geysers work and I have hot water for a shower, the broadband satelite internet feed possibly ate a good amount of TNT and is really fast, the local fruit and veg vendor is now charging me local instead of tourist prices - everyone that I have contact with helps with learning the local lingo, and I have no idea what is happening in the rest of the world.

Anybody on the Cabarete, Sosua, POP stretch that would like to exchange paperbacks? Cheap novels?
 

MommC

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Mar 2, 2002
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Merry Christmas Chris.......
Now take the day, pack a picnic and GO TO THE BEACH!!
Think of all us poor souls freezing our duffs off just to have a white Christmas at home with the kids!!!
 

Robert

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Jan 2, 1999
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Chris - Tell me about your broadband satellite dish.
I'm curious to know how it's working and the costs involved.

Isn't living here fun :)
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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Thanks all, for the messages. The beach sounds good, the snow, not so good, and identifying with being a plantain is going to precipitate an identity crisis. ;) And the kids, I guess its time to answer their e-mails soon.

On the satellite broadband questions, I'll reply individually - not too sure what the feeling would be if I post something like a sales pitch on the board. Just generally, the technology is called VSAT, for Very Small Aperture Technology. It works and it works very well - It is not a 'cheap' hobby but if you spread the cost over a few users, it becomes affordable. Really Really good and reliable for businesses and private communities.
 

Escott

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Jan 14, 2002
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Chris, post away, lots of us are interested. I was a beta tester for a broadband satellite service started by and Israeli company by the name of Gillat in the states and sold them in 2 retail stores. Cost monthly was about 70 bux and the service sucked to tell the truth but more than ok for someone with no chance of getting DSL or Cable Modem. Always some bullshit about being on a bad cluster or some such trash. Equipment was expensive as well. It was also sold through Dish Network.

I am down all the time and bring fresh 6 paperbacks and hardcover books with me. I would be happy to turn em over to you on Jan. 6th which is when I leave after arriving on the 25th of this month. 809-853-6158 is my cell.

Good luck in the DR Chris. You will need some to put up with a lot of the BS:)

Regards,
Scott
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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jazzcom, you will arrive on the 25th? This is the same day we have the dinner in sosua. what time will you be here and what time does the dinner start? I hope you will not be late because I am not gonna make a trip so far to chat with some expat with ww2 stories in mind.
 

Pib

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Jan 1, 2002
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BTW, I have LOTS of paperback (sort of like a small but highly dissorganised library). I live in Santo Domingo, you may email me if you are interested in trading books.
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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Can you just list all the info on Vsat here for the rest of us?
thanks
 

MommC

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As long as it has absolutely nothing to do with the phone company I'd like to here more also. Send a PM and I'll reply with my email address.......
 

Chris

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VSAT

OK, Robert said I could spam the board, so here goes with all I can think of now. Please feel free to ask more questions.

Here is some General Info about VSAT's. I've tried to stay away from the technical stuff and tried to keep it simple.

About us - We are technology providers working in the Caribbean - and now in the DR. We are qualified installers and resellers for a reliable satellite company in the US - not Gilat, as we found their service not acceptable for our use. They do good work for the larger type installation. We were looking for someone to work with that we could depend on for the smaller type of installation. We've done extensive testing to see if we wanted to work with our current suppliers and if they would give us the right level of service. Currently we have eight installations running, excluding our own two, one being in the DR and one in the Turks & Caicos. Three of these are mission-critical installations - this simply means that the customer loses a lot of money if their connectivity goes down and we get yelled at. We have three installations in process currently.

So, we've been installing dishes and supplying service over the Caribbean over the past six months. Generally the connectivity works very very well if the dish is sized properly for its location and its use - and obviously, if it is properly installed and commissioned. This technology has really come into its own only over the past year or so. It is now a real option, both financially as well as in terms of service level, especially in areas where other services are poor or non-existent.

We work mainly with 1.2 and 1.8 meter dishes, as the six satellites (birds) that we can 'home' onto, are really quite far away. The small dishes (e.g. DirecPC or variants) that are widely in use in the US, do not do it for us in the Caribbean, or the DR.

Dish size also is important in terms of rain fade and cloud cover. It depends on whether you need a mission-critical installation, or whether you can afford to go down or lose connection if it rains or is cloudy.

Pricing: This is not a 'cheap' hobby and usually the costs work out better if it can be shared. It is the ideal solution for a business or for a community, or for a block of apartments. The equipment cost is going down at the moment and we are keeping a good eye on this - cheaper equipment means a more affordable product and more work for us.

Estimated Hardware & Installation Pricing: depends on size of dish and the difficulty of the installation. So, to give you a VERY general idea, a 1.2 meter dish would be around US$4,000, hardware (SNS & LNB's and Dish) installed and commissioned. (If we have to work upside down on the 10th floor, price is higher - if we have to do the networking inside to get the connection to different machines, or to a network, the price changes).

Monthly connection charges depend on the'package' that you purchase. The smallest that we work with, is a basic package where monthly charges work out to around US$100. This gives you an uplink of 56kbps, bursting to 128kbps and a downlink of 400kbps, bursting up to 750kbps. These are the advertised speeds. In our experience, the uplink is usually a little slower but the downlink remains fast. Price goes up from here onwards, with business level services up to 1Mbps, being around US$500 per month. It is also possible to do VPN (virtual private networking), all kinds of net-to-phone communications, as well as IP Telephony suitable for business use. (IP = Internet Protocol). Public IP Addresses are available if required. So, it is really necessary for us to do a proper site survey, before we can quote a realistic price.

If you spread the basic package over 5 or so users, it becomes really affordable. We've done this with good results before in small hotels or communities. If we can 'spread' the connectivity with wireless receivers - it works real well - obviously if the terrain allows us to do so.

If anyone would like to look at our installation at home near Cabarete, let me have an e-mail and we can arrange time. We also run it off the generator very successfully if there is no power. (Just remember, I do demonstrations at home for wine!)

Some general questions that someone usually asks along the way -
- Can one dish be used both for internet connectivity and television? The answer is yes. The same satellites that carry the internet connectivity feeds, carry television feeds. The installation process becomes a little more cumbersome and complicated.
- How long does it take before one can be up and alive? Usually a non-complicated install takes two days, start to finish. Very few installs are really not complicated so, I'd figure on a week before we push the 'alive' button.

This is all I can think of now.
 

MommC

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Thanks.....now we can gather our questions and sit and think awhile over a glass of home-made Italian wine!!