Internet saga: The Game

** Want to play a game? I'm taking bets on which day my internet / telephone / cable will be installed **

Rules are simple: by which day do you suppose I will have functional telecommunications in my apartment? These are "Price is Right" rules: person who is closest to the actual date without going over. I.e., if you choose Jan 31 and they install on Feb 1, you beat the person who picked Feb 2.

One small hint: I will NOT be in Santiago Jan 20-26 (so don't choose those days!) The longer discussion of what actually is happening can be found below.


So after waiting over three weeks to have internet installed in my apartment, I was told today that the delay is caused by "no free numbers". I ordered the "tri-play" to be cost-effective (and to have one or two t.v. channels in english!), and one-third of the tri-play is a land-line. GTD Mancheque told me today that they no longer have any telephone lines available. But they are "looking" and will get back to me when they find one. And that will probably be after this week.

So, seriously, what is up with this! And of course, I have to rely on my generous colleagues to help me call the office and negotiate with their workers (my spanish is very basic, and I definitely do not know enough to describe my problem and ask them to solve it).

Thus, I am still waiting for internet (and phone, and cable tv) in my apartment. The initial request was made on December 26. The first follow-up phone call was made on Jan 8. They scheduled an appointment with me to come to my apartment and actually do the installation for Jan 14. That day came, and I waited 3.5 hrs, only for them not to show up. On Jan 15 (today), my colleague Ricardo called and got the run-around, eventually finding out that there are no more phone lines.

So, to keep my sanity, I'll guess I'll have to make this into a game. Email / reply to this post with your guesses. The winner gets a prize!