In a modern metropolis all these cables should be buried beneath well-tarmac'd roads and pavements - for security as well as efficiency. But in SP, no matter how posh the neighbourhood, these spaghetti junctions blot and blight the landscape. The scale of such an infrastructure overhaul is scary, and I can't see it happening anytime soon.
Update: Recall how massively high my Telefonica charges are, for line rental as well as calls ? Well today I was speaking to someone on the phone, who lives nearby in Higienopolis, and he said let's switch to Skype. On doing so, the leap in sound quality was amazing. Brazil would probably be better off abandoning traditional voice telecoms altogether and switching exclusively to VoIP. An even more absurdly improbable scenario.
Thursday 2 June 2011
Going underground ?
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On the subject of call cost, the cost of calls to Rio from SP is an absolute fortune, whereas calling Rio from London using the just dial access code (0844 838 0990) is 2p per minute. Skype calls are on the whole terrible quality. Opening up the telecoms industry to competition is the answer.
ReplyDeleteI also find it hilarious going into a mobile phone shop (or any shop in a mall) and seeing assistants outweigh customers by 3-1. If you ever actually ask them something, they usually don't know anyhow.
Jon
You should see the number of "assistants" milling around the clothes shops here in Bom Retiro !
ReplyDeleteI wrote on an earlier post about the extortionate bill received after we made some pre-travel phone calls to Rio. Unreal.