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Internet. Pretty amazing that something which didn’t exist (for most of us) 20 years ago is now a necessity, but I guess the same can be said for many things in our lives (like cell phones). I have heard that the Internet is more important to people than hot water. Think about it, if you are in a hotel at 10:30 at night without hot water you will probably be upset, but likely just tell the front desk in the morning. On the other hand, if you are trying to get online and the WiFi is down, you will probably be making an immediate call to the front desk. This of course varies by person, and I don’t want to assume anyone’s needs, but in general the Internet is pretty important these days. This importance is why it is so great that we have a new Akumal Internet provider.
Before now we have had three providers that varied based on your location. Those of you in Akumal likely have access to Telmex and Playa Wireless. Anyone in the Akumal Pueblo or Chemuyil probably has access to Cablemas. And people in Rancho San Martin, Rancho Santa Teresita, and Sirenis have been stuck with only the option of Playa Wireless.
Now a new kid is on the block. WIMEX! WIMEX provides Internet via wireless antenna. This is similar to the way Playa Wireless provides access. If you have Playa Wireless now, you might be a good candidate for WIMEX.
We recently had a chance to sit down with Eric Descoteaux, one of the WIMEX founders. As we talked to him we were pretty impressed with both his network and customer service mindset. First, let’s talk about customer service. His goal is to fix a customer’s issue before the customer knows they have a problem. To do this he proactively monitors his entire network, including his customer links. Additionally he wants to ensure that his customers have all of their promised bandwidth. This is also done through monitoring. Once his links reach a certain level of utilization, he orders upgrades and stays ahead of the curve. Proactive is written all over this company, which isn’t always a word we are accustomed.
Now for the geeky network stuff. Many wireless providers have a series of towers running up and down the coast. To get their signal down the coast they bounce the signal from one tower to the next and so on until they reach their destination. For us tech geeks this means two things: bandwidth contention and added points of failure. WIMEX has towers running up and down the coast as well, but they instead opt to use high powered equipment to beam from the main office to each tower independently. This means that if one tower in the middle has a problem then only those customers are impacted. It also means that there is much more bandwidth available for each tower (YAY!). Finally, WIMEX is aware of the power quality we have here in the beautiful Riviera Maya. To combat this they have battery backups on their equipment at each tower so they can ride through the short power outages that sometimes happen. Finally, they also have a generator at the main office to ensure the main tower keeps beaming a strong signal to all the remote towers.
Below are the WIMEX packages. Remember, this is wireless service which is more expensive to maintain (for WIMEX) so the service costs are higher than Telmex or Cablemas. Those of you using Playa Wireless are already accustomed to this type of pricing.
Down/Up* pesos/month
- 1Mb/256Kb $495
- 2Mb/512Kb $665
- 3Mb/1Mb $900
- 5Mb/1.5Mb $1400
- 6Mb/2Mb $2000
- If you have a business (hotel, Internet cafe, etc) or need another package, contact them as well. They have symmetric services up to 20Mb
*1 Megabit (Mb) consists of 1024 Kilobits (Kb). So a speed of 256 Kb is approx 1/4 of a Mb.
For AkumalNow readers Eric has extended a 10% discount on installation. Just tell them that AkumalNow sent you. Installation typically runs about $3500-$6000 pesos depending on the location and how tall a mast they need to put up for the antenna. If you already have wireless internet through the other provider they can likely reuse the same cable run and save an additional $500-$1000 pesos off the install. For most of our readership area, an installation will be $2500-$4000 pesos (less your 10% discount when you ask for it).
If you want to contact WIMEX, email them at info@wimex.mx or phone them at 984-139-2613. www.wimex.com
For those who want to know how this pricing measures up, we compiled a list of packages from the other Akumal providers:
Telmex Infintium DSL (no voice service)
5Mb/128Kb* $349
10Mb/128Kb* $499
*In most parts of Akumal Telmex cannot deliver over 2 or 3 Mbps download due to their poor infrastructure. In these cases they will only sell you an older 3 Mbps package for similar pricing to the 5 Mbps package.
Cablemas
3Mb/256Kb $179
6Mb/768Kb $299
10Mb/1Mb $479
30Mb/1Mb $949
Playa Wireless*
512Kb/512Kb $275
1Mb/1Mb $475
3Mb/1Mb $900
*In talking to Playa Wireless the packages are not 100% clear, this is our best understanding of what they offer.
via New%20Akumal%20Internet%20Provider!. http://akumalnow.com