tele cable vs. telmex

[gary c.]

We are just getting Tele Cable in our part of SJC. We don't have TV now (use Netflix for occasional watching). We'd appreciate any insights into the advantages and disadvantages of switching from TelMex to cable for phone and internet services. Plus, whether you find the cable TV of any value.

Thanks,

Gary and Carol

[oasiscloud]

I have the highest Telmex internet package for internet and phone (1000 pesos/month). I also have the mid range Telecable tv/internet package (650 pesos/month). The Telecable TV is OK, gives you the main US networks, but if any kind of a storm comes along those channels go out. That is OK for most of the year but in rainy season it is very hit or miss.<br /><br />For internet I find Telmex MUCH more reliable. I keep the Telecable for the rare case when Telmex goes out, which did happen for me for 24 hours this week. But for me anyway, the Telmex internet service is much more reliable than Telecable.<br /><br />I don't have direct experience for the phone, but know some people that haven't been very satisfied with the Telecable phone. If electricity or internet is out, so is the phone.

[bezerk]

I have both as well...telecable has higher speed internet , tv is okay but limited english. I do not seem to have as many problems as pevious poster with losing connection in rain. Though it does happen. If electricity or internet is down with telecable then your phone is out.

Telmex, I have the medium package for phone and internet..it to goes down the internet, the phone is reliable mostly...The internet is slower and you do not get close to advertised speeds, which are slow anyway, but phone is good...

I have both as well when one is down the other is usually working, Now I might add I am not as far from either company as you so not sure if that matters..

[johanson]

It also depends upon where you live. It would be smart to check with your close neighbors as well. Where I live cable internet/phone isn't that reliable. However they are modernizing the infrastructure and soon it will be much better in my part of upper Ajijic.

My Telmex works great and in my case I get the advertised internet speed. I pay $599 and my modem is set at 6 megs down by I forgot what up. Here are my results

http://www.speedtest.net'>

I haven't had an outage for several years

[HelperGuy]

Like Peter, I get around 5 Mb/s download speeds. My son, who lives in Quebec just across the border from where he works at Bell, gets 2 Mb/s. We pay the same monthly price. Granted his speed could be higher except for the current infrastructure. So please don't tell us that TelMex speeds are "slow". And do not put much faith in those world speed maps.

Wherever I've lived in Riberas (5 places now), I end up getting the advertised speed. Sometimes I have to deal with setup issues, but then it's done.

[virgogirl]

I have the lowest priced package 389 and there is an option to upgrade the speed for 99 peos a month. Do you think it makes any difference or do they just use the 99 pesos for tip money?!

[All Day]

I have the lowest priced package 389 and there is an option to upgrade the speed for 99 peos a month. Do you think it makes any difference or do they just use the 99 pesos for tip money?!

It really doesn't matter what any of us thinks. Try the service. If you get the speed upgrade, great. If you don't, cancel the service.

[johanson]

All Day made a great suggestion. Before you pay the additional fee, you might document the speed you are now experiencing using say www.speedtest.net maybe a dozen or more times and at different times of the day and enter your modem (via the computer screen) and see what speeds they have set for you.

In my case to get into my modem, the URL or default address is 192.168.1.254 (Older Thomson)

User ID is TELMEX and

Password is the WPA or WEP password written on the back of the modem

On another unit, a router, my DEFAULT ADDRESS (like a URL) is 192.168.0.1 Unlike the Thomson above the default address was shown on the back of the unit (older Netgear)

I hope you get what they promise for the extra fee.

[giltner68]

Helperdude, your comment about Riberas/Telmex is bunk, I paid through several orifices for over 2 years for "5"mb and never EVER saw more than 1.7mb. It depends on the node you're on, if you were lucky enough to be on a low population "new" node with 5mb capability then great. But, when Telmex crashed last July I was literally forced to move to Telecable because they would NOT reconnect me to DSL. Your anecdotal "helper" advice is just that, selective and definitely not the general experience.

[johanson]

Giltner68, what you are getting is exactly what it should be if you are yet to be upgraded. Before I was upgraded, when I entered my modem, it was still set at 2 megs down. And I would get about 85% of that,(1.7). Once they give you the upgrade, something that happened to me last May, my modem settings for the middle or $599 package showed about 6 megs down. And 85 % of that is about what I am now getting. If your modem settings are still set at the old standards and don't match the new standards you need to have the tech folks update your settings, something that sounds very easy. But often, it is not.

Good luck

[All Day]

Giltner68, what you are getting is exactly what it should be if you are yet to be upgraded. Before I was upgraded, when I entered my modem, it was still set at 2 megs down. And I would get about 85% of that,(1.7). Once they give you the upgrade, something that happened to me last May, my modem settings for the middle or $599 package showed about 6 megs down. And 85 % of that is about what I am now getting. If your modem settings are still set at the old standards and don't match the new standards you need to have the tech folks update your settings, something that sounds very easy. But often, it is not.

Good luck

I don't think they can update the settings if the upgraded cabling hasn't been done in your neighborhood. We've been promised 5mbs for 2 years now. Still no upgrade.

[Kevin K]

giltner 68 is correct. What's available depends completely on where you are. Clearly there's great Telmex service in much of Ajijic and Chapala, but in lower Chula Vista where we are you can pay for whatever speed you want from Telmex but what you will get is 1.5MB or less - and that's not just my experience but confirmed by two different Telmex techs (both of whom recommended we use Telecable for our internet here!).

Telecable meanwhile delivers the promised 5MB most of the time, but speeds drop in the evenings (especially weekend evenings) when, presumably, local kids watching videos and playing games are hogging bandwidth. There are periodic outages but less frequently than we experienced with Telmex. On the other hand, when things do go wrong with Telecable you have to go to their office (which is only open weekdays - needless to say outages mostly occur on weekends) as they usually don't even bother to answer their phone and are useless when they do.

As with Telmex (but more so, in this neighborhood) at least the value is there: 589 pesos a month gets you phone, 5MB internet and TV, for about what we were paying for internet alone (albeit much faster and more reliable) in New Mexico.

[johanson]

Telmex hasn't updated the wiring in my neighborhood for many years and they have told others that lived closer than I via the same telephone poles that the quality of the lines were not good enough for 5 megs. Yet I, living farther away, on the same circuitry got the 5 megs. Some others who go to the LCS computer club meetings have told the same story in other areas,

Yes, there are areas where the infrastructure won't allow higher speeds. I'm just saying that based on comments from others at the computer club and from some of my neighbors often the techs tell you that even when it isn't true,

Shown below is what I just got on my $599 5 meg account. Remember this is a time of high usage.

http://www.speedtest.net'>

Yes the wiring in my house is new and I'm using WiFi between my laptop and my modem, not cable.

[virgogirl]

Thank you for your discussion. I think I have a better understanding of this now.

[Curmudgeon]

giltner 68 is correct. What's available depends completely on where you are.

Not true ... I have just gone through a long process with Telmex, including all the local managers. Truth is, they will give you the minimum they think they can get away with. They will try to blame slow speeds on your house or local wiring, But the truth is they don't have sufficient total bandwidth to support what they are selling and taking money for.

Case in point. The $999 package advertises 10mbs, but I have yet to meet or hear of anyone getting more than 6, no matter where they live. If anyone wants details of my experience, PM me.

[virgogirl]

This is what I suspected, Curmugeon, so that's why I didn't think I should throw 100 pesos in the trash. I also had a very weird experience setting up my service. I am comparing the experience of GDL to Lakeside here. First in GDL, when I set up installation, they came and put phone AND infinitum all in one clean sweep. Efficient.

Here, I was told, first we put in your phone line, then you have to wait 3 days and we can put in your infinitum, How inefficient is that???? I was commuting from where I lived in GDL to make this happen smoothly since having phone and internet is important/essential for my work.

Since I was still not living here, I posted HUGE SIGNS with arrows and instructions in Spanish to where they should place the service. Back bedroom since I live on the Carretera and it is loud. They obtained and returned keys to my employer.

When I arrived the next week, they had set up service right at the front of my livingroom where it is the noisiest. Now there were old cajitas(little phone plug-in boxes) all over the apartment. They could have easily upgraded or replaced the ones in the bedroom where I had instructed by sign to place it. But since I wasn't here to boss them around, they took the path of least resisitance. Then I went to get infinitum. He just signed me up and handed me the modem, no tech needed. Why he couldn't do that the first time I was there, I'll never know.

Additionally, I was told that once they placed the line here in Ajijic, that my phone would be disconnected in GDL. I was worried about the transition, because I do alot of English by Phone with business executives and no phone=no work. Yet my phone line in GDL was still active the day I left GDL. It was disconnected according to the system/computer records. I pushed the issue and he investigated and sure enough, there was still an active line at the old house. I hate to depend on Telmex, I really do, but I haven't gotten settled enough yet to go Magic Jack or something.

[Curmudgeon]

I hate to depend on Telmex, I really do, but I haven't gotten settled enough yet to go Magic Jack or something.

Don't forget you need Internet access, from Telmex, Telecable or Lagunanet, in order to use MagicJack

[HelperGuy]

Helperdude, your comment about Riberas/Telmex is bunk, I paid through several orifices for over 2 years for "5"mb and never EVER saw more than 1.7mb. It depends on the node you're on, if you were lucky enough to be on a low population "new" node with 5mb capability then great. But, when Telmex crashed last July I was literally forced to move to Telecable because they would NOT reconnect me to DSL. Your anecdotal "helper" advice is just that, selective and definitely not the general experience.

Sadly, you are completely wrong, as usual, on all fronts. I have worked with a few customers over the past nine years. When I state something on this board, it is based on first-hand knowledge.

Your continuing erroneous reporting about Internet service via Telmex is simply going to worry people who are unsure. Please report to us what experience you have here other than your own contract.

[HelperGuy]

This is what I suspected, Curmugeon, so that's why I didn't think I should throw 100 pesos in the trash. I also had a very weird experience setting up my service. I am comparing the experience of GDL to Lakeside here. First in GDL, when I set up installation, they came and put phone AND infinitum all in one clean sweep. Efficient.

Here, I was told, first we put in your phone line, then you have to wait 3 days and we can put in your infinitum, How inefficient is that???? I was commuting from where I lived in GDL to make this happen smoothly since having phone and internet is important/essential for my work.

Since I was still not living here, I posted HUGE SIGNS with arrows and instructions in Spanish to where they should place the service. Back bedroom since I live on the Carretera and it is loud. They obtained and returned keys to my employer.

When I arrived the next week, they had set up service right at the front of my livingroom where it is the noisiest. Now there were old cajitas(little phone plug-in boxes) all over the apartment. They could have easily upgraded or replaced the ones in the bedroom where I had instructed by sign to place it. But since I wasn't here to boss them around, they took the path of least resisitance. Then I went to get infinitum. He just signed me up and handed me the modem, no tech needed. Why he couldn't do that the first time I was there, I'll never know.

Additionally, I was told that once they placed the line here in Ajijic, that my phone would be disconnected in GDL. I was worried about the transition, because I do alot of English by Phone with business executives and no phone=no work. Yet my phone line in GDL was still active the day I left GDL. It was disconnected according to the system/computer records. I pushed the issue and he investigated and sure enough, there was still an active line at the old house. I hate to depend on Telmex, I really do, but I haven't gotten settled enough yet to go Magic Jack or something.

TelMex routinely tells customers it takes 24 to 72 hours to activate your Internet. They send an order to Mexico City, where the office deals with contracts from all over the country. We all suffer from the same lack of NOB standards here, and it's something we just get used to.

I ended up paying three months for two phones as I waited for two landlords to provide original IDS to do a phone number swap, not copies of their IDs, and coordinate the work orders with people being at both homes. However, I was here when they arrived at my new place and they did a superior job, replacing old telephone cabling, adding a second line just for the Internet, and even providing me with the cell number of the team leader... which he responds to.

[gary c.]

All Day made a great suggestion. Before you pay the additional fee, you might document the speed you are now experiencing using say www.speedtest.net maybe a dozen or more times and at different times of the day and enter your modem (via the computer screen) and see what speeds they have set for you.

Thanks for this information. I am trying out the speedtest program. That will be helpful when we talk with Telecable.

Carol

[virgogirl]

Helper Guy, Obviously it pays to be there when Telmex arrives. Right Now, my set up is near the street. Like reaching out the window and touching the carretera. I thought of going back in there in demanding they come back and install everything in back. But I think they will then stick me with a "new installation" fee if they have to come back here. I haven't decided if pushing it is worth it.

The services in GDL were somewhat more efficient. I'm not complaining too much... so glad I'm here. I don't know how long I'll be able to stand this broken car alarm across the street on an old blue pickup by Gym Nos. The thing goes off all day and night.

I talked to the guy about it, he admitted it was broken. I suggested he get it fixed and he just walked away.

If my set up was in the back of the house, it'd be slightly less noisy. Thankfully there is no lease. Maybe I'll move again to a quieter zone. I can deal with buses, ambulances, screeching tires, loud kids, and general traffic noise. It's the broken car alarm that isn't do-able. it's pretty unreasonable. And I'm pretty tolerant.

[joco69]

Have used Telmex for the last 16 years, love the bundled deals which are more than reasonable compared to back in Canada. Download speed has never been a problem but Upload speed can be one when you use MagicJack or similar devices.

Also have used Telecable for TV service for the same period, it suits me well since I am multlingual and I am more interested to listen to news in spanish, much more accurate and in depth. Lots of good movie channels in original languages with subtitles for many of them, also much cheaper than satelite TV up in Canada. Reliability of both services do compare well with canadian services except that they are so much cheaper.

[greenstye]

I have 10 Mb/s service from Telecable and usually that's about what I get, more or less. There are, however, frequent interruptions of service, especially when they are upgrading cables.

[glws]

I tried to upgrade speed but was told point blank by Telmex we cannot do it in your area as we are connected to the older connections outside NUEVO CHAPALA . I guess I and stuck with 1.1 download and .10 upload.