

Ask HN: Travelling in South America - is there good Internet access? - Sealy

Hi HN. I&#x27;d like to travel around South America but I was told that internet access is not great there. I still want to go but would need regular access for work.<p>I guess my question has two parts:<p>1. Where would you recommend going (ideally it has to be reasonably cheap)<p>2. What is access like from Hostels &#x2F; Internet cafe&#x27;s &#x2F; Hotels?
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benologist
"Good" is subjective but in my experience you can usually always find a one
megabit connection and "broadband" usually only means that. If your good
involves Netflix or streaming HD movies on iTunes you're going to feel the
pain.

In poorer countries you should be prepared for internet cafes that don't have
wifi and in hostels and hotels the wifi often doesn't reach the rooms.

Generally the further you get from a major city the greater the chances of not
having internet access.

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pjlegato
It varies wildly depending on exactly where you are and how much money you're
spending, from "not available except via satellite" up to "widespread wifi."

Economic development is extremely uneven in South America compared to the US
or Europe. If you're in a $2,000 a night luxury hotel in Buenos Aires, it's
likely that it'll have adequate wifi hooked up to broadband. If you're in a
$10 a night hostel in a rural area, you'll be lucky to be able to stand in
line to check your e-mail on a shared 15 year old Dell with a CRT on a dialup
modem.

Another complication is that even in many of the places with adequate
broadband, access to locally hosted sites is reasonably fast, but there are
very few overseas pipes leading out of the country. Hitting US or Europe based
sites will usually be much slower than hitting an in-country site.

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PencilAndPaper
For basic use, wifi is widespread enough, especially at gringo hostels. Not
sure about working, but I was contemplating bringing my laptop on my next SA
trip and getting work done. What I worry about is how much of an obviously
wealthy person I would appear as(relative to locals)if I set up my laptop
anywhere away from the hostel. I dont like overt displays of wealth because it
makes me feel icky, but it would also make me a prime target to rob. Im
curious what other people have to say though...

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benologist
It really depends on where you go. There are places where it would be very
foolish to take your laptop out of the hostel.

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phaus
I can only comment in the context of playing videogames with people in South
America, but you may find the information helpful.

I've been playing a lot of Counterstrike lately, and apparently the game is
wildly popular in Brazil. The average player from Brazil appears to have
200-300ms of latency, and when playing with them, the game suffers
intermittent lag spikes.

This doesn't really give you an idea of the availability, but it should give
you an idea of what your connectivity is going to be like when you are trying
to interact with services in the U.S.

