The Challenge of Being a Digital Nomad in the Galápagos

I'll start this post by asking you to try to overlook the fact that I haven't published anything here since early December when I wrote an introductory post about the process of getting my residency visa for Ecuador. An incredible number of things have happened in the past three months: I traveled across the country (from the coast where I was living in Olón, to the Amazonia region of Ecuador) for the holidays, ended up living in a hotel in Guayaquil for three weeks while waiting on legal documents, and I also got married!!! Yes, I know, I've got a lot of explaining to do! 😇 Then, exactly one month ago today, I moved to the Galápagos. I've been posting photos somewhat regularly on my social media accounts and, for now, that continues to be the best way to stay up to date on my adventures.

So, with that being said, and assuming you've seen some of my recent photos of the beautiful scenery and wildlife that is viewable from where I'm sitting at my desk while writing this post, let me tell you about one of the biggest challenges of life in the Galápagos Islands.

Why It's Hard to Be a Digital Nomad in the Galápagos

As a digital nomad who relies on a steady internet connection to do my work for Groundhopper Soccer Guides and Bumerang180, to say that it has been challenging to get anything done since I landed on San Cristóbal a month ago is a total understatement.

Keep in mind that the Galápagos Islands are 600 miles from the mainland. Currently, all internet connections are via O3b satellite. In May 2020, the President of Ecuador announced that Galápagos Cable Systems would construct a submarine cable from Manta to the Galápagos, bringing 4G and 5G service to the islands. However, I cannot find any recent news about the company or the project, other than allegations of fraud that the contract was awarded without proper bidding.

Ecuadorian Ministry of Telecommunications announcement in May 2020

As I have mentioned in several of my social media posts since moving to San Cristóbal, I still do not have internet service at home. Thus, in order to work, I have to use my cell phone as a mobile hotspot (I have a US-based T-Mobile business plan with unlimited international data) or walk across town to the cyber café and pay $1.50/hour to use their WiFi.

Now you may be wondering why it would take so long to get home internet? The simplest explanation is that the only way to get the minimum speed required to do my job (without wasting literally hours per day waiting for webpages to load) is with fiber optic service. And to get that type of service there are only a few options, none of which are cheap, and all of which require setting up a business plan and getting on a waitlist for installation.

First, for a simple explanation of what the technical terms mentioned below mean and why speed matters, read this article: How much speed do I need?

Internet Options in San Cristóbal, Galápagos

There are mobile internet plans, but service is not reliable and speeds are comparable to what I’m getting on my phone currently (see below).

The only “traditional” internet service on this island is provided by government-owned CNT. You have to go to their office, wait in line outside, and then finally speak (from six feet away while wearing a mask) with one of the two employees who handle contracts. Besides being almost impossible to hear/understand them, they have not been very helpful (I ended up going a total of four times!). Their residential service requires having a landline telephone which costs about $12/month. Then you have to pay a one-time $60 fee for internet installation. The maximum bandwidth possible is 512 Kbps. Internet service costs approximately $35/month.

CNT's process is that once you provide all of the necessary documentation (including the names and landline phone numbers of the neighbors), they come to your house to verify that they can actually do the installation. The quoted timeline for this was 72 hours to 10 days. But honestly, why bother, when the absolute maximum speed is 512 Kbps?! I have tested their home internet service at several friends' houses here and was unable to load my work-related applications.

CNT also offers business internet. Their 512/256 Kbps plan (the cheapest available) is via copper line, has 4:1 sharing, requires a 24-month contract and costs $152/month, taxes not included, plus a $100 inscription fee. Their cheapest fiber optic plan is 3 x 1 Mbps and costs $849/month (no, that's not a typo!).

Puntonet is a 20-year-old company based in continental Ecuador who partnered with Speedcast in 2019 to bring fiber optic internet to the Galápagos. They have an office in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. All of my communication with them was done via WhatsApp. Their cheapest plan at 1024/384 Kbps costs $295/month with a one-time $450 (again, not a typo!) installation fee. At those prices, I immediately nixed them from the list of possibilities.

ifotoncorp is a brand new fiber optic company based in Santa Cruz. A friend of ours told me about them the first week that we arrived on the island. I reached out to them immediately via their online contact form as well as WhatsApp, but they told me the earliest they could come to San Cristóbal to do an installation would be “in about a month.” Why the long delay? Besides the fact that they are busy doing installations in Santa Cruz, they are also waiting for more equipment to arrive via cargo ship! Their cheapest plan has 512/256 Kbps bandwidth and 8-to-1 sharing. It costs $85/month plus a one-time $100 installation fee.

Internet Speeds in the Galápagos

To give you an example of what I've been getting by with the past month:

Here at the apartment using my T-Mobile phone service (which "borrows" the signal of local providers, in my case, Claro) my ping rate is 750 ms and my download speed is typically around 0.17 Mbps (170 Kbps).

At the cyber café, which has a business plan with CNT, I ran the same speed test and the ping rate was 346 ms, with a download speed of 1.0 Mbps.

The struggle is real, people!!! As my friend Paul said the last time we talked, it’s like I’m living in the 1990s. And he's right! Be sure to check out this fascinating infographic about the history of internet speed, courtesy of Entrepreneur.com, excerpted below.

Internet speeds and prices in the U.S. in 2013

Now let’s do a fun experiment. Go to speedtest.net and click the "GO" button. Then reply in the comments (here on the blog or on any of my social media accounts where I've shared this post) with your download speed. Be sure to clarify if your number is in Kbps, Mbps, or Gbps. If you want to include a screenshot of your test results, that would be awesome!

Oh, and in case you're wondering what I ultimately decided to do about my internet service... I am on ifotoncorp's list of fiber optic installations when they come to San Cristóbal next week! Stay tuned to find out what happens.

The cargo ship, anchored near Punta Carola, San Cristóbal,
that was carrying the internet equipment for ifotoncorp.