Communication, Systems
Internet
You're reading these notes because even here in the least densely populated country in the world, we have an internet connection. We are hooked up to a little device the size of a flattened stick of chapstick that plugs into the usb port of our laptops. If we are not using our built-in wireless modems for something else, such as transferring files (Apple Airdrop) or printing through an Airport, Judy and I can share the connection this device provides between our two computers. It is not without its problems. Here in western Mongolia,
SkyTel was recommended to us, and as things in this part of the world go, it has been pretty reliable. We pay 24,000 ₮, or a little over $17 for "five gigas" of transfer, which, with updating this site, downloading teaching material, checking in on family at home with Skype, and getting software updates (a recent OS10 update was just shy of one "giga") lasts about two weeks. If it runs out on a Saturday morning, we can buy more gigas before noon by walking a few blocks and paying cash, but if it runs out on Saturday afternoon, we are out of luck. There are also outages, for as long as a few hours or days at a time, when there is simply no contact with the outside world.
We Americans are so accustomed to having the world at our disposal that when problems arise, our first reaction has become to go online to look for help. And so I caught myself a couple of weeks ago—after two days without service, being back online for an hour and then suddenly being cut off for running out of gigas—trying to google SkyTel to see if there was a way to pay online. I actually got all the way to the "You are not connected to the internet" warning before I recognized my logic gap. We (Judy more patiently than me) waited until Monday.
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The school where we teach has one ethernet cable for our entire office of seventeen faculty. Most do not use it, either because it is a very slow connection or the cable does not reach their computers—though the main reason may be that people don't use the internet for what they are teaching. On good days I'm told that a wireless signal can be picked up from the public library across the street, but when I've checked I have not been able to find it. Otherwise, the teachers who do use the internet must bring their own wireless modems to school, as I do.
It's easy to forget what good access to the internet has brought us, especially when combined with a reliable transportation system. Here we're reminded because of the difficulty in getting books. Right now I'm in the process of putting together an Amazon order for the faculty in my department. (Judy is doing the same.) Although Amazon lists Mongolia as a country it will ship to, it doesn't seem willing to fix the validation issue on their ship-to form so that it can accept an address without a postal code. (I have chatted and emailed their support department about this, without resolution. They insist that I must have made a mistake. I have tried the code that is shown on Google, the one generated by the USPS, and a random fake code, all without success. Here in Mongolia, they don't use a code.) So you can't place an order with them for a shipment to Mongolia. I'm having them shipped to Pittsburgh so that I can bring them back with me in my suitcase after next week's visit. And although it isn't as utilitarian as ordering books, the internet has shrunken the world for two dozen of my students. All but one of my freshmen talked to my mother in the United States using Skype.
Phone
When I first started planning to come to Mongolia I didn't find very much information about its phone system. Calls to Verizon to see if they could help didn't get me anywhere except to explain how we could suspend service for part of the time we're gone. The bigger issue was how to get phone service here, and how to use it to call the United States. As it turned out, these were several different problems. Judy got her phone the second day we were here, at MobiCom. The phone with some minutes was 60,000 ₮. I was holding out for a way to make my iPhone work, which was an even bigger problem. Getting someone at Verizon to answer an email request to unlock the phone so I could replace its SIMM card proved impossible, so it was not until all the other systems were in place that I could call them (via computer) and explain my situation. Once unlocked, I was able to buy a SIMM from MobiCom, then with a knife and ruler, cut it down to fit the iPhone's card slot. (Not for the timid, the instructions are on YouTube.)
Although Mongolians love their phones, their phone service is not what we're used to. We have no voice mail here, and although there may be data plans that make sense for us, our language difficulties have prevented us from discovering them. We use our phones for local calls (anywhere in Mongolia) and rely on Skype and FaceTime to talk to people in the US. Although Skype is more versatile, FaceTime has become our favorite for talking to the increasing list of relatives who have bought Apple communication devices recently: iPhones, iPads, and various flavors of Mac. (It's enough to break a former stockholder's heart.) It seems to get better performance out of our marginal connection. Even better, it is very easy to use.
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