Puerto Rico is last on the list with an average speed of 1.07 Mbps, so I guess I should stop linking to the HD version of the YouTube movies if I want my brothers to read my blog.

Source: L.A. Times

It’s shit like this that hurts the growth of the industry in Puerto RIco however, since they cant even get access to their own TLD which would make it so that they can get something and specify that its from Puerto Rico. If you want a .com.pr they sell those for $100 first time and $50/year afterwards which is still a bit pricey.

If they are afraid about domainers they can setup a rule where you can only apply by going to the office in person and they have to have a presence in the island. There’s ways to get this without hurting the industry and individuals that might be interested on this domain. If you notice however, they have a $6.95 3rd level domain available as well ‘isla.pr’ so if you wanted the domain name ‘sewing’ youd get ‘sewing.isla.pr’ for $6.95 per year, except you can’t because “Only government agencies in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico” may request for those. 

I have a site that would really benefit from a .pr domain name. I will not be paying that amount of money for it though. I even pay about $40 per year for my .pe and I did it without even thinking about it.

For more info on the overpriced TLD visit nic.pr 
I want to find examples of .pr domains I know… other than nic.pr and gobierno.pr,  I don’t know any.  High fives all around!

Hace dos años estoy en Denver, Colorado. En San Juan no progresaba, nadie tenia trabajo para mi. Veia como todos mis amigos graduados en comunicaciones se peliaban por los dos o tres trabajos (temporeros) en las publicaciones locales que cada vez son menos. Mis amigos ingenieros se tuvieron que mudar del area metro para lograr conseguir trabajo, uno se tuvo que mudar para la Florida. Las cosas no van bien.

No me involucro en la politica. No es lo mio. Cuando salio Anibal Acevedo Vilá no dije nada. Cuando quebro el govierno, no dije nada. Cuando decidieron que el IVU era la solucion. Un impuesto fijo que penaliza al que gana poco, me mude pal carajo. Ahora que el Partido Nuevo Progresista gano basicamente todo lo que podia ganar en Puerto Rico, en una victoria tan contundente que pone en verguenza a todos los otros partidos tengo que decir algo.

DESPIERTEN COÑO!

La unicameralidad, la apoyan porque dicen que hay muchos en el govierno que no ayudan y no hacen nada. Quieren entonces una camara, que no tiene que pedirle permiso a la otra para pasar leyes. Para que cada vez que uno de estos monos entrenados se antoje de un nuevo projecto ridiculo, siempre pase.

El estatus es una escusa. Nadie esta tratando de cambiar el estatus de la isla. Todo es de tener mas control y de ayudar a los compañeros y favores politicos. Es una burla al pueblo.

La criminalidad y las drogas son el entretenimiento de todos. Como va a ser que nadie puede hacer nada y que cada año es peor? No puede ser que esten tan dormidos.

Como todos estan sorprendidos de quien gano anoche les voy a hablar a todos por igual, uno despues del otro.

Los Azules (Partido Nuevo Progresista)

Si cada cuatro años tú votas integro bajo la Palma.

Ahora mismo hay tanto azul en la isla que me molesta mi estomago. Ya el PNP no tiene nada que ver con estadidad, es todo sobre como ayudar a sus amigos y el progreso que traen es con sus nuevos planes de mas dependencia en los Estados Unidos.

Tengo que admitir que mientras creo en la estadidad no creo en el PNP. Me molesta que nadie piensa antes de votar y usan el voto de “castigo”. Ahora no hay quien se le oponga al PNP ni en la camara, ni en el senado, ni en ningun municipio.

No permitan que la gente que elijieron usen esto para mal. Si alguien hace algo que no encaja con sus pensamientos por favor anotenlo y no vuelvan a votar por esa persona. Consideren los otros candidatos, no las otras ideas politicas, los candidatos como personas todos los partidos estan mal. Es lo unico que les pido. Estos cuatro años van a demostrar lo que la mayoria PNP puede hacer, y la ultima vez que esto fue asi… bueno, todos estan presos.

Los Rojos (Partido Popular Democratico)

Si cada cuatro años tú votas integro bajo la Pava.

Pues obviamente no estas prestando atencion a lo que esta pasando en la isla y mas que nadie te mereces lo que te va a pasar. El Estado Libre Asociado no es un ‘estatus’ es el limbo. No tienes poderes, no tienes derechos. Creo que ya haz visto como funciona en estos ultimos años.

Si piensas que el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico es lo que quieres defender, yo te comprendo. El cambio es algo que da miedo. Pero por favor entiende que el estatus no va a cambiar de un dia a otro. Si piensas que un candidato de el PIP puede hacer un mejor trabajo, vota por el.

El estatus no va a cambiar sin un referendum. Las elecciones generales no tienen nada que ver con eso.

Pierdes mas si sigues eligiendo a las mismas personas que no hacen mucho contra tus archienemigos los azules. Busca opciones y mantente al tanto de lo que no crees que funciona. Creo que hay varios candidatos independentistas que ayudarian a la causa Roja mas de lo que piensan. Creo que los llaman “melones”

Los Verdes (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño)

Si cada cuatro años tú votas por el candidato del PPD pero los senadores y representantes PIP.

No se que hacer con ustedes. Mi mamá es independentista y se fue de viaje estas elecciones. No les veo el punto, tantas buenas ideas pero encapsulados en una idiologia que todos temen. Ustedes son culpables de que la Marina de Guerra de los EEUU se fueran de Ceiba y de Vieques. Dejando desempleados a miles. No les importa. Rubén Berrios estuvo meses en la playa de Vieques, claro, con cable y aire accondicionado y sin trabajar en el senado. Como le seguian llegando los cheques…

Creo que si de verdad quieren ayudar a Puerto Rico, y estoy seguro que es lo que de verdad quieren. Tienen que dejar de empujar la independencia y empezar a impulsar a el trabajador Puertorriqueño. Los Boricuas necesitan a alguien que los apoye, el hueco es muy grande y no parece que hay soga para salir.

Cuando nosotros, como pueblo, dejemos de depender de los Estados Unidos (ver el plan PNP) vamos a querer independencia, sin miedo.

Pidanle a la juventud que se mantenga informada, y envuelta en la politica. Desagance de los politicos que tienen ideas anticuadas y que honestamente le han robado a la isla.

Los Amarillos (Puertorriqueños por Puerto Rico)

Si este año viste un logo nuevo en la papeleta y pensaste “¿por que no?”

Las ideas de este partido son interesantes y trataron de que el publico joven se involucrara. Es algo fantastico y tremendo que en su primeras elecciones ganaran 2.71% de el voto. Demuestra que hay suficiente gente que de verdad quiere un cambio. Que mal que esa gente es toda Roja. Tienen que empezar a trabajar ahora mismo y mantenerse en la luz publica hasta el 2012.

Trabajen en obras positivas, y organizen actividades proactivas. Dejen las protestas para los Verdes, les ha ido -super- bien con esas. La gente quiere saber que pueden ser parte de el cambio. No quieren siempre estar llorando que no les gusta lo que sus politicos (que la gente misma elijió) les estan robando.

El Resto

Si todos los dias te levantas y no entiendes por que nadie ve que los partidos todos son iguales.

Desafortunadamente eres el que causo esto. Tu apatía te hace complice y te quita todo derecho de hablar. No permitas que esto pase denuevo. Sal a las calles y cada vez que ves algo que esta mal apuntalo, habla con tus compañeros de escuela y de trabajo. Escuchen a los politicos que estan en poder, si estan en desacuerdo dejenlo saber.

Busquen foros en linea donde pueden mantener a los candidatos en orden. Son la mayoria ustedes los callados.

Me gustaria mas que nada poder algun dia regresar a Puerto Rico y tener un trabajo solido. Como mi abuela y mis padres trataron. Me gustaria poder estar orgullozo de mi pais.

Los estados unidos votaron por un verdadero cambio anoche. Y ustedes, ¿cuando?

Yes, after over a year of you being able to buy the iPhone on eBay and jailbreaking to have access to even better applications through Cydia and Installer.app, now you can actually go to a store and purchase it right then and there. You can even pay their excesive $30/mo for unlimited internet and 0 text messages. While if you had just jailbroken it you could have added the MediaNet 200 and gotten unlimited internet (yes, including 3G) and 200 text messages for $20.

I am sorry if I sound bitter, but honestly, these news are a year too late. Puerto Rico has had capacity for the iPhone for all this time and now suddenly they decide to launch and its really anticlimactic.

I disagree that this has anything to do with the T-Mobile G1 but I’ll take whatever excuse they give us. There you have it, if you enjoy giving money to companies that obviously don’t consider you a priority, AT&T will be selling the iPhone 3G in every one of their stores starting October 17th, expect there to be shortages and for service to be abysmal (like always).

The iPhone Availability chart that Best Buy has setup clearly states that the iPhone will not be available in the Caguas or San Juan locations.

This does not mean that they will never sell it. It just means that AT&T has, once again, missed a perfectly good oportunity to release the iPhone in Puerto Rico.

I have gotten confirmation from them (as I have said before) that they will be releasing it before the end of the year, but there is no set date yet.

My mom totally had the same haircut as the woman in the Crest commercial (@ 6:43), “Like” sounds like a great soda (@ 5:30) and didn’t that last Church’s Chicken commercial win the “best commercial EVER” award? (@ 9:33)

Today’s procedure went without a hitch. I gave them my information, told them my phone number, and even told them my current billing address (in Colorado). The interesting thing about this is AT&T did not complain about my number having a Colorado billing address. But that is just a different kind of issue that I am so glad they finally got over.

So there you have it. iPhone 3G, legally activated with a Puerto Rico number. If you are visiting the United States and decide to stop by an Apple Store, you can upgrade your AT&T account with confidence before heading back to Puerto Rico. As a quick note, AT&T did confirm by email that they have plans to offer the iPhone in Puerto Rico in the near future but there are no dates set yet.

Today is July 11th. There is no iPhone in Puerto Rico. Apparently some people were upset enough with that to start sending emails to Tecnetico and he had to write a ‘editorial’ about the subject. In this editorial he (Wilton Vargas) explains that it was just rumor and speculation and that it sucks that he didn’t get it right.

Trying to show some proof that he has actually researched the subject of the iPhone in Puerto Rico he has posted a email ‘conversation’ between him and Patricia del Carmen Ramirez at America Movil (Claro) and she reinstates what I had said in my previous post about the subject.

Claro has no say about the iPhone in Puerto Rico because AT&T has the contract for ‘The United States and its Territories’. End of the story.

It is interesting that Tecnetico has chosen to update his site the way he has. Making the words ‘I am proud that our track record is still untouched’ bold Instead of highlighting his new September prediction, also from ‘sources of entire credit’.

So there you have it, Tecnetico reporting rumor and speculation leaves their track record intact, they are now rumoring and speculating that September will be the new date.

Since Wilton Vargas is a radio and television personality and apparently his ‘sources’ are about as reliable as my sources. I will now rumor and speculate the following:

• The iPhone 3G will be released in Puerto Rico at some point within the next year.
• The iPhone 3G will be on AT&T’s network
• The iPhone 3G will work just like it does in the United States (it already does >.>)

There you have it. They are the only 3 things I know for a fact. The reason why this is such a problematic issue is that AT&T is huge. There are various departments that are involved in bringing a product to Puerto Rico and therefore there is a lot of rumor, speculation and in the end delays.

AT&T representatives in Puerto Rico have been awaiting the iPhone since it’s launch last year. The iPhone has had various launch dates internally and something always goes wrong in the last minute. I am sure that Apple’s revenue sharing also came into play. There is really no competition for a phone like the iPhone in Puerto Rico. Sure all the big carriers are down there, but most people are still on the regional carriers like Centennial who’s phones are just now getting color screens (NOTE: this is obviously hyperbole, but seriously their phones suck). This means that AT&T expects to get a flood of sales when it finally launches.

I am sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but that is the state of the iPhone right now. AT&T is getting ready, it might take a while.

Thank you to everybody who emailed me about the Tecnetico story.

Update 1 (7/11/08) :

An example of a news bit is the first comment on this thread. According to ‘Obsessed iPhone 3G Researcher’ AT&T is ready to take orders (Which would be weird since they did not do this in the states) and will launch it a week from today, July 17th, 2008. If this turns out to be true, you heard it here first people . Thanks for your comments everyone!

Update 2 (7/18/08) :

As expected, there was no iPhone launch today in Puerto Rico. I just wanted to point out how these rumors get started and show that by leaving your sources unnamed you are basically taking responsability for what you say.

Update 3 (8/18/08) :

El Nuevo Dia has posted a date range ( September – December 2008)

Also surprising, how Puerto Rico is once again not included in Apple’s plans.

In the announcement they include the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. They actually have two different carriers in the Dominican Republic, Orange and Claro. AT&T the first carrier that had the iPhone still does not list Puerto Rico as a territory that can recieve iPhone service, even though, the iPhone works just fine there and according to a few people, you can now just buy an iPhone in the states and register it through iTunes with an Puerto Rico phone number without any problems. Additionally, Claro also services the island. If they had a contract for Puerto Rico it would most likely be included in that Latin America tab that I linked to earlier.

Why the lack of love for Boricuas? I seriously have no idea. I emailed their PR people and am hoping for a reply sometime soon. It is really getting ridiculous that they just ignore us like that.

update:

Matt from Apple Customer Relations / Public Relations just got back to my email yesterday about the seeming lack of an announcement for Puerto Rico and confirmed that as of this time there is no announcement about the iPhone making an appearance in the island. He then pointed me to apple.com to keep up with news about the device. There you have it, it is now official.

update 2 (6/11/2008):

Patricia from America Movil just confirmed what was becoming apparent. AT&T has the exclusivity rights to the iPhone in the ‘United States and Territories’. This kills earlier reports (even mine) that there was a possibility that Claro would be carrying the device. Reader Cardy pointed out in the comments to this post that Tecnetico.com had heard from a ‘reliable source’ that the iPhone 3G would be coming out July 11th in Puerto Rico under the AT&T flag. If this is indeed true, AT&T customer representatives have been unable to answer as of yet. It does seem like the only option however. Unless AT&T decides we are somehow not worthy… like they did the first time around.

update 3 (7/2/2008):

I have been calling AT&T every day trying to get more information. I have emailed a few representatives and asked to get pushed through quite a few times and I have still not been able to get any real confirmation about the availability of the iPhone in Puerto Rico on July 11th (or ever). Last year AT&T representatives claimed that the iPhone would be released “sometime late in august” which obviously never happened. I would love to give everybody hope but until I have real proof I will most likely just link to articles that cite sources and not claim it myself.

As an aside, I wanted to point out, Claro has -no claim- to the iPhone in Puerto Rico. They just simply can’t provide it because AT&T has the rights in the United States and its territories.

Update 4 (7/11/08) :

Follow-Up Story

Update 5 (8/18/08) :

El Nuevo Dia has posted a date range ( September – December 2008)

Either way, we went to one of the two places that back then were the only authorized retailers of Macs. A place that goes by the name of Modernica. They did not have the Power Books with bluetooth because of ‘export concerns’. They took 3 weeks to get the Power Book after my friend ordered it, and even then, it was the past generation model. Is Apple to blame?

At the time of writting this is the low end Mac Book Pro model you can buy at Modernica’s website and the low end model you can buy at Apple’s site.

After visiting the Modernica Store in Plaza Las Americas I can now confirm two things, they do not update their website, as they actually -do- have the current model machine for sale. I can also confirm I can’t say ‘in stock’ as they told me they had to order pretty much anything I asked them about, and it would take about 2 weeks. Good thing I wasn’t planning on buying a Mac there.

The other distributor was CompUSA, but since their bankruptcy and subsequent re-opening they seem to have gotten rid of the Mac aspect. So off to the newly opened Best Buy, prices remain the same, but they actually do have a stock of Apple machines.

Where does this leave the iPhone?

The iPhone works. In fact, it has always worked in Puerto Rico. This is against what ATT and Apple both told you at launch. You just have to realize that ‘not available for sale’ does not mean ‘does not work in’. Apple finally signed with America Movil (aka Claro) to bring the iPhone to Latin America, which would include Puerto Rico. This is supposed to happen ‘before the end of the year’. A few people I talked to in the island about it also mentioned that:

1) If you have an AT&T account, activation through iTunes now works as it does in the USA.
2) AT&T will most likely be providing the iPhone in Puerto Rico as well before the end of the year. Making it one of the few places where the iPhone is -not- exclusive to one carrier.

Of all the people I talked to many got it through friends/family in the USA who would just mail the device down. Many others mentioned eBay as the source of their phone.

I have had my iPhone hacked and in use with a Puerto Rico phone number in the United States for almost a year now. Even if I could activate it normally I would still have it hacked, since there are no official applications right now, and if there were, I’m pretty sure the SNES Emulator won’t make the cut.

Apple has been shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has a very avid fan base for Apple computers. The office I used to work at uses them exclusively and many of my friends have switched to mac. But when you go to purchase a Mac you need to know what you’re getting into or you will end up not liking the experience. Having Modernica, the only retailer with Apple Macs on sale in the main mall in Puerto Rico, not have a stock of machines is ridiculous, and adds an extra unnecessary barrier to entry to the consumer that would just like to purchase a machine on that given day.

Best Buy is an option, yes, but it is not a Mac exclusive retailer. Modernica should have the advantage here.

If you are on the fence about getting an iPhone and you live in Puerto Rico, wait until the update (sometime in June) and get an iPhone 2.0. You will not regret it, It will work in Puerto Rico under AT&T if you already have a contract with them. If you don’t wait a couple of months. The iPhone will be available for purchase soon enough.

If you are on the fence about getting a Mac. Go to Best Buy, play with them there, and just do it. Life outside of Microsoft is sweet and delicious.

Apple, please fix this. Give all U.S. citizens equal rights to a Mac!

I will try and upgrade my account to an iPhone account sometime later this month and I will post my findings.