With that disclaimer out of the way, if money is no object and bandwidth is the primary concern, then you cannot do better than Romtelecom ADSL2… at this time (2006).

I am beginning to think the best *value* is probably one of the higher-speed cable accounts, if you’re looking for the best bang for your buck.

http://www.daily-news.ro/article_detail.php?idarticle=23550

The government is selling off the various Electricatopus branches and making a bundle. So, competition will indeed arrive and BPL should become a factor… to the benefit of us all.

I still have a quibble with the use of nelimitat, but I suppose it’s not a debate worth having. That’s good news!

In December 2002 when I first started on Rdslink the only available speed was 128 kbps and the subscriptions varied in terms of allowed traffic.

My Romaneste is far from perfect. Indeed, it barely exists. So, I found navigating a non-English version a bit cumbersome and relied on my discussions with friends to understand how RDS works. Perhaps they have different service agreements (or old ones!).

What I think is funny is how the ISPs all claim “nelimitat” and then immediately contradict that by announcing a limitation on data transfers.

I know the argument is that “nelimitat” refers to time. We had this same bullplop in the US several years ago when companies claimed “unlimited service” and then set limitations. It took a year or two to work itself out, but eventually the providers stopped lying to customers.

Limited data quotas are not “nelimitat.” Period. End of story.

I’m sorry to learn that RDS is playing the mobile phone network game by differentiating calls on and off the network. I know this is very much an American bias for me, but these are strictly a shell game for telecoms to try and lock in customers through viral marketing (i.e., no cost).

I’m sure the first reaction is “well, hey, it’s cheaper!” Unfortunately, that is a misperception based on marketing propaganda. You see, if they did The Right Thing(tm) and open up networks to peer providers then you could call anyone on any network for the low prices instead of being artificially limited to calling ONLY people on the same network.

It’s a joke and will probably require legislation to change it. If that happens. Zapp seems to be ahead of the others on pricing and close to a more open network type structure.

I plan on talking about cellular service in Romania another time in a different post.

Thanks for your information on RDS, I appreciate it. The price for your service is pretty good!

Take a look at the current “abonamente”:

http://www.rdslink.ro/cablelink/cable_abonamente.htm

The speed is between 512kbps and 1 Mbps and there is no local 3 Mbps speed that I am aware of.

I am in Bucharest and pay 15USD for the 768kbps version. I am quite happy with their service - I’m downloading at the maximum speed most of the time - both from Romania and from outside Romania.

So, lei for lei, Astral clearly sounds like the best deal IF you can get it in your area. They seem to be offering a value which is roughly on par with the rest of Europe.

Multumesc for the RDS reclama link. That’s hilarious! I have a buddy in Cluj on RDS cable and his connection is incredibly flakey just like what you describe. Of course, he adapted a little by running a little program to analyze throughput per hour. It wasn’t long before he saw clear patterns about which hours worked best and he started scheduling his online time for those hours. I think he’s nuts to wake up at 4am to play WOW though.

I am beginning to suspect that Electrica is octopus of PSD creation. I’ll have to try and research it more in the future. However, be that as it may, the leadership of Electrica would be fools if they don’t see a clear advantage in immediately expanding their availability to provide BPL/PLC services throughout larger and larger segments of Romania. Perhaps mistakenly, I was under the impression they saw the HUGE reveneue opportunity in front of them. By jumping into the fray with Romtelecom, Astral, RDS, et al., Electricatopus could really change itself from a tepid acquisition target for foreign investors (Austria, eh?) into a real powerhouse capable of controlling its own destiny (buyouts of Slovakia, Slovenia, and Serbia anyone?).

Want to know my brilliant plan for localized power generation? Okay, it’s a bit like hydroelectric in concept, but it has the added bonus of being extremely popular with the Romanian citizenry as well. First, I drive around Brasov in a Trabant wagon armed with a long pole and retractable wire loop just like the Animal Control professionals use. I wave bacon out the window to attract the right attention and then clean up the streets by dognapping my hapless victims (except Boschito, who I will turn loose, of course). As the throngs of onlookers cheer my vigilante good deeds, I whisk the booty back to my pirate lair and one-by-one attach each caine to the leather harness until I have several sled-dog teams worth. You’ll have to imagine I’ve already constructed the necessary mousecage exercise wheels (sized to scale, obviously). So, I place a stray female in heat in front of the wheels and let the males run for her… the wheels keep turning… and like Dr. Frankenstein, I marvel at the genius of my creation.

Hmm.. think I could get a patentn on that?

Listen, I plan on keeping an eye out on the BPL development in RO. It’s hard to imagine it will go any slower than America where it’s nothing more than a whispered rumor, really. Even the most corrupt of communist benefactors has a small chance to eventually realize they need to diversify their revenue base if they intend to survive the evolution of competition. Da, da.