Fastest ISP in Puerto Rico

This story in PC Magazine tells it all: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2471158,00.asp

From the article:

PC Magazine wrote:

The bottom line is that Internet access in Puerto Rico is available, but it will break your heart. There will be times when you are left waiting for your beloved Internet to return. Or you are anxiously checking your cell phone for a callback that never comes. You can expect service, but it won't be consistent or great.


Posting after posting by people who say they are customers complain that their service is non-existent, and that the company's customer support is just as disconnected.

Every bit as reliable as water, cable, electricity and 911 service. Why should the internet be any different? These are some of the many things that people with stars in their eyes and dreaming about living on a beautiful tropical island should be aware of. You'll hear things like, "that's the price you pay for living in paradise". But if you have to pay the price for these and so many other things day in and day out for years, at what point does paradise cease to exist? Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying one shouldn't move to Puerto Rico. The island can be a wonderful place to live. But it takes a certain kind of person to adapt and thrive there. It's not for everyone. No place is. All I'm saying is to all the dreamers out there, take off the rose colored glasses and look at the whole situation and research and evaluate everything objectively through clear lenses. Following your heart and your dreams can be a wonderful thing. In fact I recommend it for everyone. But do it with your eyes and your mind wide open. I'm still bitterly disappointed that I wasn't able to adapt to living there. But I don't fault Puerto Rico or the people from there for that. I'm disappointed in myself that my own character and ability to adapt fell short of my hopes and expectations. Find out all you can about PR and the way of life there before you make the leap. Then turn things deeply and honestly inward and evaluate yourself to see if you have what it takes to make the change and stick with it.

We have Liberty for our ISP and their customer service is awful, to put it mildly.  When I try and contact customer service, it usually takes me a little over one hour to actually talk to someone.

I do have to say that the internet performance and reliability is somewhat better after I replaced the coax cables and splitter with my own.  Who knows - maybe the hardware that Liberty used was older.  Knock on wood, things are a bit better.

For people coming down here relying on internet for business and/or homeschool purposes, talk with others and find out their experiences with different providers, and consider some sort of hotspot network if your livelihood depends on having reliable internet.

After struggling with PRT and Claro for many years I've been using Sprint mobile broadband for something like 6, 7 months now and I'm really happy with it. Sprint has proven to be a reliable provider and their customer service is just fine.

The problem for most users would be that you don't get a lot of bandwidth (6 Gb) with the standard contract. I found a way to get an unlimited plan for 50 bucks. It requires that you own a registered business and have a (business) account with a local credit union. (cooperativa).

Frogrock, one of our members, is getting a similar solution from AT&T and they offer an affordable plan with 30 Gb bandwidth that should be enough for most users.

I guess that using a national cell phone provider for internet access will become popular soon on the island.

Gregg, thank you for your very thoughtful post.  We are certainly going to approach our potential move with wide open eyes and do as much research as possible. 

At this point, my husband and I don't have a regular cell phone plan and use a prepaid service.  We don't have use for a smartphone like our daughters do and as many other people do.  We seldom use our cells.  But I can see going that route one day. Our prepaid service works great in PR so no problems there.  I was asking on another post about free wifi in Rincon for our trip in Feb. as I will be bringing my tablet to check emails.