Cyprus-Forum.com

[pimprenelle]

Admin note: Visit www.cyprusbroadband.net for in depth Cyprus ADSL information.

Hello,

I'm new in your forum and before beginning I wanted to tell you that I have found plenty of useful informations inside so that a very pleasant cordiality. I will move to Cyprus (french nationality) but ADSL is required for my job .

With the search button and "ADSL" as keywords, I have found four topics (carefully read with about 7 links to URL visited). Nevertheless two questions remain :

- could I find a Cyprus'map of geographical overlap for ADSL and of the localization of the DSLAM (for example for France we can compare the difference between ADSL's providers as there http://www.journaldunet.com/0412/041208adslenfrance.shtml (three red links inside the "window" at the middle of the page) or there http://www.dslvalley.com/adsl/deploiement.html (under the words "*** DEPLOIEMENT ADSL***" we can select the map for each provider : France telecom is the public one where as 9telecom, cegetel, free, ALICE are privates). This would be very helpfull because I will rent an unfurnished urban or semi-urban flat or house (globally between Agia Napa and Limassol) so I think that I couldn't check the spead of download even with a laptop, and my choice will at first depend of it.
N.B.: as you can see rural parts of France, as everywhere in Europe, are not or partially covered by ADSL ; as in England, local people organize groups of consumers in order to get it via satellite+wi-fi

- actually in France I am lucky because the modem sold by my ADSL's provider gives full 24H/24 access to audio-video via IP, VOIP, and of course standart surf and e-mail services (my download speed is 5 Mbits ; ADSL2 is available since a few weeks and would give me around 15, the max being 20Mbits) so that there is no need to pay for phone besides (the price too is very competitive : 30€/month and seems a real "gift of the sky"... but the sea is very far away!). Do you know if this kind of service is planned in Cyprus and which company(ies) could be the quickest one in providing this service so that I could be more "strategic" in my choice?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Good week-end.

[Aris]

Hello,

In Cyprus there is basically one telecom - Cyta (www.cyta.com.cy) and what is offered can be found here: http://www.i-choice.cyta.com.cy/english/index.php

Then you have a choice of ISPs but the telecom is currently only able to provide up to 1.5Mbit ADSL. I don't think they are planning to increase that any time soon.

The electricity authority is planting fiber optics cables and they are planing to provide cable TV and internet, but thats not something that will happen very soon in the coastal areas (they will begin from Nicosia).

[devil]

Bonjour,

If you want ADSL, then you must live in a largish conglomeration and you MAY be lucky, provided you live within a ~2.5 km radius of a hub, the locations of which are state secret. Villages, as a rule, are NOT served and CYTA are not intending to do so unless YOU can prove to them that it is justified.

I applied for ADSL over 3½ years ago, and I'm still waiting, despite having UN backing and some 10% of the village having declared they are interested AND we have a optical fibre at the end of the village.

Even in Nicosia there are areas which are not served or, if they are, are very slow.

So I would say, choose your house so that it's close to a hub!

Bonne chance!

[pimprenelle]

Thank you very much for these prompt answers.

So in fact I will follow your advice. i-choice-CYTA seems good, price is attractive and 1,5Mbit will let me do a good work with webradio on at daytime. I think that my computer will work alone during the night with all the time required for big downloads of photo-video data running from my company server. Concerning numerical TV, satellite could be an alternative and this part is not for work so I could wait ... and stay near the sea and enjoy sailing during my freetime.

When I will chose the flat or house, perhaps would it be possible to meet previous inhabitants or even easier some neighbours? I read that more than half of Cypriots use internet. Do you think that such a direct ask could be well understood (even if I come with my laptop to look after the spead of download/upload, of course after asking for permission and doing this in front of them, in the case they couldn't control it with their own computer)?

[pimprenelle]

Just one thing more, about computer. Is there some Apple centers in Cyprus (hardware salers and technical reparation) ? because I can't find this in the yellow book here http://www.cytayellowpages.com.cy/directory_uk/yellow_dir.asp

And last last thing (sorry french women are so curious!) : do you know cypriot's forum in english specialized in computers and specially with part of the topics related to Apple's hardware? By their way I could get local helpfull informations?

[devil]

If you want ADSL and be near the sea, that leaves you Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos. The latter two, in particular, tend to be very touristy and the coast is actually climatically unpleasant in summer because the humidity and the temperature are both high. This is one of the reasons I chose to live inland at an altitude of 300 m. When the temp is in the 30s/40s, the relative humidity rarely exceeds 25/30% here.

Many people have digital satellite TV with, ose-je le dire?, pirated access cards, some with a host of French language programmes. At the moment, I can get F2, F3 (but not TF1), Arte, Mezzo, Gourmet-TV, some pop-music, Télévision Suisse romande 1 et 2, Euronews, Eurosport etc. on a single card. However, be careful; many of the satellite system vendors are cowboys (but not all). On three occasions, different vendors have tried to overcharge (one offering me a digital receiver for £500, which I found elsewhere, for the same model at £120. Another tried to charge me £100 to displace my dish a few metres (a tree was causing problems): I did the work myself in exactly 30 minutes. A favourite trick is to sell you a "new" LNB at £35-40 a go, even when it is not necessary. They kindly take away the old one to sell to the next client, of course.

I believe there is an Apple dealer on the island, but I have no details. Mac is not popular here; possibly used in limited arts graphiques applications, but even there they have lost enormous ground to the PC (e.g., I use PCs for prosumer video work).

[Piratis]

The latter two, in particular, tend to be very touristy and the coast is actually climatically unpleasant in summer because the humidity and the temperature are both high.

This is your very subjective opinion of course

There is an Apple dealer, however Mac usage here is probably even lower than the average worldwide.

[devil]

This is your very subjective opinion of course

Not really: just compare the RH figures between Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos. You will find that, typically, they are over 20% lower in Nicosia than any of the other ones when the temp is around 35-45°C, perhaps even 25% in the mornings when there are no katabatic winds. Granted the temp is also about 2°C higher in Nicosia but 40°C at 25% RH is much more bearable than 38°C at 45% RH. That is known physiology, not subjective opinion.

[Piratis]

What is subjective is not the numbers. What is subjective is what is preferable to each person. Every place has its positive and negative aspects. If this was not the case, then where you live would be the most expensive area, and nobody would like to live on the coast.

P.S
Your temperature figures are not precise. 40 degrees inland and 38 on the coast is something we experience just some days in the summer. It is not the average high temp of the season.

Here are the averages for each city:

http://www.cyprus-weather.com/content.p ... standalone

[pimprenelle]

I don't like so much "tourist's area" everywhere in the world. My spirit feels better with sea view from breakfast to diner and plenty of trees and flowers hiding walls of old houses ... but between dream and real life I will have to find a steady point! I don't worry for heat (no problem in tropical countries) and it could be temperate by the marine breeze, and more of all my skin and hair like humidity

Really my first objective is the work but the way of life is important for me. I'm very intersted in Cyprus because of the strategic situation : inside Europe, between Orient and Occident (all her history isn't it? with plenty of paradox very intersting for curious people like me), a good economical status with dynamism and update communication. Even if an island could be a handicap, Cyprus is a relatively big one (as well as for area than for demography ... which grow up x2 or more? during summer). I have compared with french overseas territories in pacific, caraibes and indian areas : excepted for the minimal temperatures along the year! all the points are far back Cyprus ; sure the french political organizations (from right to left position) would have something to learn from your country.

Thank you very much devil for practical details about satellite TV. I will certainly ask for advices here when commercials will give me their offers.
Piralis, very happy to learn that an Apple dealer is present in Cyprus (do you know its name, e-mail or the town where he is?) ; on the otherway, the alternative I have is the Apple's webstore or a visit in Athen but it is not the best to solve dysfonctions.
Apple really is fantastic for : professionnals musicians, photo+video, PAO (InDesign, Illustrator, Quarck), perfectly adapted for opensource (it is a Unix system and Linus can be installed) and more of all the OS is very very safe (kernel panic are exceptionnal, less than 3/year) and NO virus exist. For me as a partially freelance without professional competences in computers it is perfect.

And concerning my question in the second part of the post Sat 7:58 pm could you give me your idea?

Thank you for your help and good Sunday for everybody