The wifi in Bali went from amazing to useless in about 2 years

I was in Canggu back in 2019 and the coworking spaces had fiber that was super fast. Now I'm back in the same spots and the connection drops out every 20 minutes during calls. I think too many nomads moved here during the pandemic and the infrastructure just can't keep up. Has anyone else noticed this shift in other popular spots like Chiang Mai or Medellin?

2 comments

2 Comments

camerona7915d agoMost Upvoted

Read a report that said Bali's internet traffic went up 400% during 2020-2021 while the fiber lines barely got upgraded.

troy43915d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah but that's the thing that gets me - how do you even measure a number like "400% increase" when so much of the traffic is probably coming from tourists using VPNs and streaming services? Like, are they counting data from all the digital nomads who showed up during lockdown (and let's be honest, there were a LOT of them) or is it mostly locals who suddenly needed to do everything online? I've heard reports that the actual fiber backbone on the island is still mostly single-threaded in some areas, which would explain why my buddy who was there last month said his video calls kept dropping. Were there specific bottlenecks mentioned in the report, or was it just a vague "traffic went up" stat without any real analysis of how the existing infrastructure actually handled it?