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Welcome on Expat-blog saberEcuador! I have moved the thread on the Ecuador forum. I hope another members will be able to help you.

Good luck!
Christine

Hello, I am ecuadorian, that lives in Cuenca, and I think Cuenca is the best place to live in Ecuador, is a small city with all of the conforts of a big metropoli. The quality of Cuenca's water is been rated # 1 in South America, and Cuenca is also a world heritage. If have any other questions I will be more tha happy to answer.

From all I've read, outside the major cities internet is supposed to be difficult to obtain.  However, every small town that I have been to has had internet cafes.  So maybe I'm wrong.  There are also "cabinas" where you can make internet based international calls.  My internet in Quito is good, but expensive.

As to phones, we have a VOIP service that runs about 25 a month.  My experience with Andinatel (the national provider of land line phones and internet) was that it was impossible to use a VOIP.  Guess they want you to use Andinatel phone service.  I went back to TVCable.  They are the internet/cable service here in Quito.

You really have to come here, visit the towns and see if they have the services you want.

For what its worth, I agree with CBermudez.  We are retiring to Cuenca in December.  A bit easier for us as we have our stuff here and have lived in Ecuador 4 years.

Hi!!  Glad to see that you are planning a move to Ecuador ~ I've been here over 3 years and I love it, so glad I made the move.   I would suggest you take an exploratory trip first to see "where" you'd like to live, then go home to finalize whatever loose ends need to be tied up, and prepping things like Visa paperwork and relocation items.  I have lived in Quito, Montañita and am now living in Salinas over 2 years.  I loved Quito (I am a "city" girl) but want to live at the beach!!   Cuenca is beautiful, too.  Internet here on the coast is available, but quality and speed varies.  The phone company has an option. Porta and Movistar (the two major cell phone companies) also offer options via USB devices.  As for international calling, I use Skype and MagicJack.  The local "cabinas" actually offer decent deals on calls to the US, so it's not that bad (between 12 and 15 cents per minute). Good luck on your research, let me know if I can answer anything else for you!!

Internet is readily available and cheap in Ecuador...you have several options...my fav are TELMEX and TVCable...

with TelMex I pay $18 a month for internet with reasonably good speed...i can watch videos and listen to radio online ok...no contract required, no installation fees...

with TVCable they charge $36 a month for TVCable (41 channels), broadband internet, and a local phone line with 700 minutes included per month (to other land lines)...

If you are really out in the boonies, I would recommend getting a Huawei with Porta...it is one of those USB cards you can plug in to your lap top and connect to the internet anywhere there is cell phone access (which is almost anywhere in Ecuador except maybe the deep amazon jungle)...the cost is around $30 for month, prepaid, you can also buy day cards for $3 (last I checked)...

hope that helped, for more check out my blog at EcuadorRealEstate.org

I was glad to see this info and found it answered some of my questions as well.

I am - well - sort of - a "geek"....I play PC games and beta test a lot of the online games before they come out. It is REALLY important for me to have internet and cable!

I like to own the retail copies of my games and have read that a lot of the software available is really copies....with registration a problem. Options are download or mail from places like Amazon.

Again - thanks for the info on cable and internet availability - VERY helpful.

I have lived in Quito for over 16 years, I am happy to help with any questions you might have about the country.  Patrick (moderated)