How do you tell if you will be able to get reliable internet?

[Billt4SF]

We are considering moving to Bali. If we are interested in renting a place, how can we tell if there is good internet available there?

In general, are we likely to be able to get internet only in the more densely populated areas? What if we wanted to stay in (for example) Candidasa, or Padung Bai? Or if we were in Ubud, but out of town a bit?

I would love to be able to get some idea what we might be looking at, both now for when we scout out areas in which to live on the island, and for next year when we are looking at specific villas.

Here in San Francisco we have 3Mbps down and .81 up. That is sufficient for us to watch streaming TV, etc. (although it does drop out sometimes!) Although I don't think we would need to watch streaming TV, but it wouldn't hurt. It would be important to be able to make FaceTime calls.

Also what providers are good? Seems like Speedy ADSL is the most used.

Thanks,

Bill & Emily

 

[mugwump]

Access to the internet varies greatly in accordance with the area as you have assumed. Being located in West Bali as I am without as great a demand makes it difficult. Likewise your immediate physical surroundings may interfere. For instance tall palm trees can obstruct.
Having experienced the Ubud locale personally I think it is safe to say that you probably would have ready availability and some choices.

 

[Billt4SF]

Access to the internet varies greatly in accordance with the area as you have assumed. Being located in West Bali as I am without as great a demand makes it difficult. Likewise your immediate physical surroundings may interfere. For instance tall palm trees can obstruct.
Having experienced the Ubud locale personally I think it is safe to say that you probably would have ready availability and some choices.

Great. but if we rent a place for a year, we want to know what we're getting in terms of Internet. How can we find out before we plunk the cash down?

- Bill & Emily

 

[spicyayam]

It will be impossible to know, unless they already have internet set up in the house. If they offer internet then you can be sure you will pay a premium for the house.

 

[Markit]

Another way to check your internet availability is to get a Mifi device MiFi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and when you do find a place you like go to the local Pulsa shop (suppliers of sim cards for both phone and internet) and ask them which supplier they recommend for the area. Buy whatever supplier's sim they say and plug it into your Mifi and see what happens. Be aware that as others have said trees, rain and over usage can constrict your bandwidth at different times.

If internet is high on your list of necessary comforts you might want to consider another country for your dotage...?

 

[Billt4SF]

It will be impossible to know, unless they already have internet set up in the house. If they offer internet then you can be sure you will pay a premium for the house.

That being the case, I think we most likely need to take a place for a month or something and commit to a year only after verifying the internet and whatever else.

Anyone have experience or knowledge about this?

- Bill & Emily

 

[Markit]

Guys this getting out of hand.

Bill - you are going to be spending most of your time chasing brown skinned pussy and drinking cold beer when you get here. After which Emily will pack her bags and head back to mom and the kids leaving you to do more of the above.

This being the case you should look for something with lots of exits doors so you can sneak the feck out whenever you want and possibly close to the airport so when Emily fecks off the taxi won't take so long.

None of which require much in the way of internet.

 

[no.idea]

It is very unlikely you will rent a place for a month with the option of extending.
Unlimited internet usage on a mobile phone is available. It costs about $4 a month. Just try that near the house you are planning to rent.

 

[ferdie]

Best connection so far in ubud is Biznet and Telkom fibre, they have the most stable connection since its a fiber optic network, however this is Bali there's always a funny problem like somehow a road repair project digs too deep and hit the cable (happened once here)
In case your place haven't got internet, usually all the fiber optic connection only cover the big road and can only be extended around 100m from the main road
Got a problem with network today with Speedy, apparently a downpour rain with strong wind has made our connection down since last night. Such an irony looking at the name of the product :icon_wink:

 

[Rangi]

Guys this getting out of hand.

Bill - you are going to be spending most of your time chasing brown skinned pussy and drinking cold beer when you get here. After which Emily will pack her bags and head back to mom and the kids leaving you to do more of the above.

.

 

[Normy]

@1. As FaceTime is an apple product would this mean you can't use Skype on your computer? Skype seems easy to use from Bali. For internet I used a telkomsel speedy usb with a '3' sim. This lasted for about 8 months. At current address can use wifi.

 

[sugarbear]

Your first mistake . . .

We are considering moving to Bali. If we are interested in renting a place, how can we tell if there is good internet available there?In general, are we likely to be able to get internet only in the more densely populated areas? What if we wanted to stay in (for example) Candidasa, or Padung Bai? Or if we were in Ubud, but out of town a bit?I would love to be able to get some idea what we might be looking at, both now for when we scout out areas in which to live on the island, and for next year when we are looking at specific villas. Here in San Francisco we have 3Mbps down and .81 up. That is sufficient for us to watch streaming TV, etc. (although it does drop out sometimes!) Although I don't think we would need to watch streaming TV, but it wouldn't hurt. It would be important to be able to make FaceTime calls. Also what providers are good? Seems like Speedy ADSL is the most used. Thanks,Bill & Emily

Putting reliable and Bali on the same page.

 

[Braveheart_shaped_box]

You can have a great ultrafast connection every day for a month then suddenly for no apparent reason it drops off to glacial, you can have a perfect signal at the breakfast table and zilch on the porch two metres away, your service can be terminated without notice and your IP disappears off the face of the Intyweb forever.
Seriously, if the internet means that much to you, consider living in Bill Gate's potting shed, not South East Asia

 

[spicyayam]

We have had Speedy for the past few years and it is pretty reliable. It only goes down during big storms and occasionally if a telephone line gets cut. Facetime and Skype work well but you might occasionally get the connection cut.

 

[ronb]

I agree with Spicy - Speedy has been good for us for a year now. So when we were looking for a property a year ago, Internet was a high priority, so we only seriously considered existing dwellings that already had a phone line. There were still plenty to look at.

 

[Billt4SF]

We have had Speedy for the past few years and it is pretty reliable. It only goes down during big storms and occasionally if a telephone line gets cut. Facetime and Skype work well but you might occasionally get the connection cut.

If we got this level of service it would be enough. I guess that means we are taking a significant risk if we don't rent a house that has a phone line already installed.

We'll also do the Mi-Fi thing, Emily knows about it because her family is from the Philippines (I like that brown skin, you see -- thanks for the caution). We'll get that going before we visit in April, and then we'll have a better idea what we might be up against if / when we move there in 2016.

- Bill

BTW, there isn't that much traffic here on BaliPod. At the risk of being rude, are there any Bali expat fora that have more traffic? Trip Advisor seems to be 99% for short-term visitors (and the interface is poor).

 

[Markit]

Are you after numbers or sense?

 

[Braveheart_shaped_box]

Are you after numbers or sense?

Go to the people who own Bali, that's right 'Bali Expat Forum' on Facebook. Let them know you are a new or potential new arrival and they will put you right by displaying the amazing depth of their local knowledge, they will then contradict and argue with each other, start a fight with you and generally make you wonder if you are back in school, and not a very good school. But yes, they are all experts, in fact, some of them have even been living on Bali as long as six weeks.

 

[Smoke]

yes[/I], they are all experts, in fact, some of them have even been living on Bali as long as six weeks.[/QUOT

some only come for a few weeks and are experts also
some only think Kuta is Bali
Some even want to change laws in Bali