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CCV has WiFi that covers the entire resort. There is, as in everything else in Honduras, a catch.
Having WiFi is one thing, but the island (and the CCV WiFi) itself having connectivity to the mainland is another thing entirely. I sat down with a local internet wizard and he explained the improbable and circuitous route that the microwave links have to follow to the Bay Islands on their way from mainland Honduras. Each link is a failure point, and the end users of Roatan are about #7 (from what I could ascertain) away from the big antenna pointing at the Bay Islands from mainland Honduras.
At CCV the WiFi signal booms in pretty well from one end to the other, and if you look atop the Gazebo on the jetty- that's where the main antenna is with a radius of 1/2 mile. If the light is "red", you theoretically have WiFi plus mainland connectivity. (Remembering that you are in Honduras, now- when the light is "green", there is something amiss). The crux of the biscuit in terms of usage is that it is offered for free to the guests, although password protected (it's posted on the wall) to keep Fantasy Island from using it and continuing to offer it as their own.
Since it is free to guests, it is common for everyone to leave their boxes idling and running, not a great bandwidth strangler, but surprisingly (?), many guests try to download movies and run HD YouTube, along with video skype (or whatever that is called). If everyone used it for emails, this would be a non issue. In that the resort notes an average of 46 distinct users on-line (idling or in use) at most times, this burden can be extreme.
I did see one guest with an I-Gill, a u/w housing for his IPhone which he claimed he was not texting his dive buddies with while underwater.
As a test, I did watch uninterrupted streaming YouTube at 3:00 pm and then again at 10:00 pm, but as more guests were diverted from diving and eating, bandwidth became scarce, stopping or slowing way down.
My wife completed two work related transactions that included accessing a US Government website and filling out forms for doing business. Cousin Mary accessed a State for and did her business' amended sales tax. I bid on something from EBay and also bought something on WOOT! By comparison, you may deduce, I have no life.
If you're real back-home existence requires your complete access and, I would add the Bay Islands to the huge list of dive locations that you should avoid. If you need bandwidth, try Cayman~ be prepared for what comes with that. After reading the various resorts on Roatan's websites in regards to access, I think CCV's under-promises and over-delivers. On the other end of the spectrum lies Fantasy Island's description. (But that is unfortunately a dead issue as of next month)
It is odd that 5 years ago, anyone that would have gotten a WiFi signal would have been simply thrilled, now we have a scene where everywhere you turn, there is a thin tablet glowing away. Incidentally, we had no problem with AT&T International providing cellular service, there seemed to be huge issues with Verizon.
If you go there with the "need" for basic email, without much trouble you will achieve that result. If you were expecting much more, you may or may not get it. Again, the problem occurs when some other guest is trying to download something from NetFlix... and there's no way of stopping that from happening other than the system getting overtaxed and dropping off after 20 minutes.
Still, better than a FedEx overnight package which takes 10 days to get to Roatan.
Having WiFi is one thing, but the island (and the CCV WiFi) itself having connectivity to the mainland is another thing entirely. I sat down with a local internet wizard and he explained the improbable and circuitous route that the microwave links have to follow to the Bay Islands on their way from mainland Honduras. Each link is a failure point, and the end users of Roatan are about #7 (from what I could ascertain) away from the big antenna pointing at the Bay Islands from mainland Honduras.
At CCV the WiFi signal booms in pretty well from one end to the other, and if you look atop the Gazebo on the jetty- that's where the main antenna is with a radius of 1/2 mile. If the light is "red", you theoretically have WiFi plus mainland connectivity. (Remembering that you are in Honduras, now- when the light is "green", there is something amiss). The crux of the biscuit in terms of usage is that it is offered for free to the guests, although password protected (it's posted on the wall) to keep Fantasy Island from using it and continuing to offer it as their own.
Since it is free to guests, it is common for everyone to leave their boxes idling and running, not a great bandwidth strangler, but surprisingly (?), many guests try to download movies and run HD YouTube, along with video skype (or whatever that is called). If everyone used it for emails, this would be a non issue. In that the resort notes an average of 46 distinct users on-line (idling or in use) at most times, this burden can be extreme.
I did see one guest with an I-Gill, a u/w housing for his IPhone which he claimed he was not texting his dive buddies with while underwater.
As a test, I did watch uninterrupted streaming YouTube at 3:00 pm and then again at 10:00 pm, but as more guests were diverted from diving and eating, bandwidth became scarce, stopping or slowing way down.
My wife completed two work related transactions that included accessing a US Government website and filling out forms for doing business. Cousin Mary accessed a State for and did her business' amended sales tax. I bid on something from EBay and also bought something on WOOT! By comparison, you may deduce, I have no life.
If you're real back-home existence requires your complete access and, I would add the Bay Islands to the huge list of dive locations that you should avoid. If you need bandwidth, try Cayman~ be prepared for what comes with that. After reading the various resorts on Roatan's websites in regards to access, I think CCV's under-promises and over-delivers. On the other end of the spectrum lies Fantasy Island's description. (But that is unfortunately a dead issue as of next month)
It is odd that 5 years ago, anyone that would have gotten a WiFi signal would have been simply thrilled, now we have a scene where everywhere you turn, there is a thin tablet glowing away. Incidentally, we had no problem with AT&T International providing cellular service, there seemed to be huge issues with Verizon.
If you go there with the "need" for basic email, without much trouble you will achieve that result. If you were expecting much more, you may or may not get it. Again, the problem occurs when some other guest is trying to download something from NetFlix... and there's no way of stopping that from happening other than the system getting overtaxed and dropping off after 20 minutes.
Still, better than a FedEx overnight package which takes 10 days to get to Roatan.
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