#5212: Horrible ACN Internet Service in Jacmel (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 11:45:41 EDT

The only internet service available in Jacmel presently is at "Biznet", otherwise known as the Maison Henri Deschamps.  But no internet business can be conducted at Biznet, for the simple reason that there has never yet been Internet service available on two consecutive days!

Let me hasten to say that the personnel at Biznet are pleasant and helpful, professional and friendly, and have gone out of their way to help me more than once.  I don't think it's their fault.  Apparently they receive little support, technical or otherwise from their provider, ACN in Port-au-Prince, beyond the promotional ACN posters tacked to the walls.

On any given day, my chance of finding Internet access is less than 50 per cent.  Not only that, but there are frequently periods of up to a week with no access at all.  "Pa gen signal" is the mournful refrain, and when asked the reason, the staff goes glassy-eyed.

Sometimes it's the antenna, either in Port-au-Prince or in Jacmel I am not sure which.  And although the much-desired signal does not travel over the telephone lines, when TELECO is not functioning, which seems to be often enough, then there is no Internet service - why?  Because the Biznet staff can not call Port-au-Prince to tell ACN, "Pa gen signal"!  Apparently ACN does not have the technical sophistication to monitor the "ping" from their own subscribers.

It must be frustrating for the Biznet staff!  Likewise it is frustrating for the customer who asks for an estimate of when service might be available, only to be pointedly ignored since the staff has no idea under heaven when ACN will give them "signal la".  One possible strategy is to sit in Biznet's second-floor computer center and just pass the day waiting for the magic moment when ACN deigns to notice their Jacmel clients.

Any Internet provider who can offer reasonably reliable service in Jacmel is going to corner the market!  Jacmel is a cultural center - international visitors, hoteliers, USAID staff, HNP officers, local government officials, businesspeople, musicians, journalists Haitian and foreign, and even Mambos use the Internet in Jacmel!  It's not like we're in the wilds of Hinche, after all.  A few other places claim that they will soon open, but once again ACN is the provider, so I don't have much hope.  And consider that the alternative is a trip to Port-au-Prince and back, simply to send or receive an email!  The whole thing is ludicrous!  Down with ACN!  Long live whoever can let me read my email.

Peace and love,

Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

"Se bon ki ra", 
     Good is rare - Haitian Proverb

The VODOU Page - http://members.aol.com/racine125/index.html

(Posting from Jacmel, Haiti, by a miracle!)