DR vs. Panama...

drnew

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Nov 3, 2006
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Just wondering what insight people can give on living in the DR vs. Panama and vice versa.

The DR looks inviting but one of my biggest reservations is the apparent lack of good internet service in the DR. I work online and need to have a reliable connection.

I see that DSL is available but I see posts where it goes down for days at a time and takes weeks to months to setup...not good for me.

Other than that, any other things people want to share on the good/bad of these two countries?
 

Robert

Stay Frosty!
Jan 2, 1999
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dr1.com
Just wondering what insight people can give on living in the DR vs. Panama and vice versa.

The DR looks inviting but one of my biggest reservations is the apparent lack of good internet service in the DR. I work online and need to have a reliable connection.

I see that DSL is available but I see posts where it goes down for days at a time and takes weeks to months to setup...not good for me.

Other than that, any other things people want to share on the good/bad of these two countries?

dr1 was Codetel's 4th DSL installation, Juan Luis Guerra was #5 :)
We have had DSL since 97 with very few problems, longer than most people in the USA, Europe and Canada.

For every unhappy DSL user here, I guess we have 1,000 happy ones.
It's the same old story, when it's negative, they tell the world, when it's positive, they shut up.

The DR has one of the most advanced telecommunication set up's in the Caribbean and South America.
 

Tor

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Jan 1, 2002
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I use internet for work, and I have no problem by doing that here in Sosua. The DSL connection is very stable, and the speed is no problem either.
 

El Tigre

El Tigre de DR1 - Moderator
Jan 23, 2003
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Is it true Verizon offers 3 flavors of DSL? The first and most basic one starting at 1,000 pesos a month.

Can someone post the other two along with the difference in price and speed?
 

Sylvester

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Jan 19, 2004
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DR Telecom ?

dr1 was Codetel's 4th DSL installation, Juan Luis Guerra was #5 :)
We have had DSL since 97 with very few problems, longer than most people in the USA, Europe and Canada.

For every unhappy DSL user here, I guess we have 1,000 happy ones.
It's the same old story, when it's negative, they tell the world, when it's positive, they shut up.

The DR has one of the most advanced telecommunication set up's in the Caribbean and South America.

Is it your position that the telecom infrastructure in the DR is on par or superior the Panama ?
 

PlantaFULL

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Oct 21, 2004
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The DR has one of the most advanced telecommunication set up's in the Caribbean and South America.

What are you smoking ? :) I don't know about Panama but since you made a broad statement including South America I can tell you that in Brasil we have 8 MBit downstream ADSL and it costs less then the DR's max speed of 1.5. Guatemala City has faster and cheaper hookups then the DR as well that I know of.

I am fine with that, the only thing I would complain about is that they are charging new-millennium prices for tech and speed that is mid/end 90's. ADSL or "Flash" like they call it here is not that new anymore and the default 768 speed has been available for ages. It goes up to 24 Mbit these days, something that if ever available in the DR, will probably cost beyond $1000 a month.

As far as working online. It is possible, I do it from the capital Santo Domingo with only minor problems every once in a while. All you have to do is setup camp in a well developed area, not count on speeds beyond 768kb even if promised more; and if 24/7 reliability is super important eventually setup both Cable or possibly Satellite as backups.
 

Narcosis

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Dec 18, 2003
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NAP of the Caribbean

The company Terremark is building the Network Access Point of the Caribbean in the Cyberpark near Boca Chica. I understand there may be no more than 10 of these worldwide with these same caracteristics, and only one in Latin America in Sao Paulo Brazil.

The idea is a "carrier neutral" facility that will provide direct access to the internet backbone structure and to any major worldwide carrier. This should be especially attractive to companies that need great amounts of bandwidth at very low rates.
 

Ant

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Feb 1, 2002
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DR vs. Panama

I have lived here in Santo Domingo for the last 3 years, and I enjoy it. But recently several friends have been going to Panama and coming back with very favorable opinions.

As far as getting foreigners to move there I would say that Panama has the DR beat, hands down. Check out this site for more information: panamainfo.com
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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I have lived here in Santo Domingo for the last 3 years, and I enjoy it. But recently several friends have been going to Panama and coming back with very favorable opinions.

As far as getting foreigners to move there I would say that Panama has the DR beat, hands down. Check out this site for more information: panamainfo.com
Panam? has been getting plenty of attention in the US. The DR is just now starting to appear in the radar screen, but there are slight differences in both.

For example, Panam? usually is presented as "the" place for retirement and whereas the DR is presented more as "the" place for investments, particularly the holiday home property types.

For example, the DR was not too long ago featured on CNBC and it was all about the investments being made in Cap Cana and in Roco Ki, how Westin Hotels and Resorts sold $100 million worth of real estate in one day without breaking ground on their projects, the new investments occuring on the north coast, economic growth, etc. They did touched on the retirees moving to the DR and such, but most of it was about investments and making money (which, given that it was on CNBC, that should be no surprise!)

Also not too long ago, on ABC they had a special report on Panam? and while they focused a little on the investments being made in Panam? City, particularly the luxury condominium and luxury gated communities and they mentioned Donald Trump's involvement in his first Trump Tower in Latin America being built in Panam?. Despite all of that, the bulk of the report was on how many Americans are moving there for retirement, how much lower their living expenses are, etc.

One topic that neither report mentioned, but both countries are experiencing is the issue of crime. Personally, I think the DR and Panam? are very safe countries where mostly fools are victim of crimes. Of course, from time to time bad luck has something to do with it, but as long that people realize that they are on planet earth and not on "la la" land, they should be fine.

But, in both countries you'll find the popular use of bars on windows, drug trafficking, increasing prevealance of youth gangs, etc.

Is it something out of this world? No. Is it something to worry about? I don't think so. Is it something to be informed about? Absolutely.

But, that's how Panam? is being painted vs. the DR and perhaps, that is having an effect on the flows of retired foreigners to the DR vs. Panam?. But, over 90% of retiring babyboomers have not retired yet and the current trickle is going to become a flood, that's for sure.

-NALs
 

riravaga

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Feb 24, 2005
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The Dominican Republic Bandwidth for 9 millions of Dominican is the same that has Colombia for 45 millions. One of the Better telephone system in Latin American, all telephone services suply in the USA could be serve in the Dominican Republic. Service like Circuit Checks is provide from Dominican Republic to many countris in Latin America, Microwabe service From Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico and Haiti, Fiber Optic cables that connect us with USA, Puerto Rico, Venezuela in teh way to acces South America, Jamaica, Codetel has 3 satelital stations, Centennial has 1, I dont know how many has Tricom and Orange, 100 per cent of the Dominican telephone centrals are digitalized.
 

PlantaFULL

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Oct 21, 2004
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riravaga: That is some interesting infrastructure info I was not aware of. Not much of this seems to be offered & used by the normal Dominican public/residents tho. Or how do I go about getting 8Mbit residential hookup as a private customer?
 

amparocorp

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Aug 11, 2002
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DR short and cheap airplane to eastern US. Panama = long and expensive to eastern US...........where are you coming from? i know new yorkers that go back and forth almost every week or so.......i know a guy in miami that does that 3 x a week..............
 

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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I have lived here in Santo Domingo for the last 3 years, and I enjoy it. But recently several friends have been going to Panama and coming back with very favorable opinions.

As far as getting foreigners to move there I would say that Panama has the DR beat, hands down. Check out this site for more information: panamainfo.com

If the currently proposed reforms of the Penal Code in Panama get adopted, I would dispute that Panama has the DR beat, hands down. Looks like you would be facing jail time for investigating a fraud of which you had been a victim, or even for carrying out due diligence on a business venture.

Panama's Noriegaville News

The writer of the piece at the link thinks Panama would be all set to become the Nigeria of Central America................:laugh:

At least in DR such investigations aren't illegal & one has a fighting chance of success.

Wonder if they tell you things like this on all the glossy Panama websites.......?
 

Porthos

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May 13, 2004
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this is an interesting thread. I myself wondered why did the donald started his businesses in Latin america from panama instead of the dr, and just yesterday read that he had a joint venture with the hazourys of cap cana, sweet! I worked on panama for a while, and it seemed to have a little more infraestructures than us, and the slightly advantage (?) of having the same currency as the US and great part of the world and international trade. But the potential the dominican republic offers for honest (as well as dishonests) entrepreneurs, is wonderful. Yes, we have one of the top 10 comunication services of the world, thanks to the monopoly codetel had for several decades. Panama, on the other hand, has a much larger, richer population in terms of races and cultures, with big asian, jewish settlements. Businessmen looking to set up in DR will find the disadvantage of poor electricity sources, poor education in terms of labor, few really fluent bilingual labor, and stuff like that. Anything else, is just an oportunity to grow, I would say.
 

zoomzx11

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Jan 21, 2006
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hot,hot,hot

While the DR is warmer than Miami, Panama is just plain hot as hell. Otherwise Panama does much more to attract retirees.