Fifty years ago writer Christopher Isherwood described the Ecuadorian telephone system as "about as reliable as roulette". Remarkably, the system wasn't much better a few years ago. However, leaps and bounds have been made of late, and today the phone system is pretty good by Latin American standards.
The two main telephone companies are
Andinatel and
Pacifictel. This may well change in the future. All offices in the big cities have facilities for sending and receiving faxes. They are generally open from 8 am to 10 pm seven days a week. Calling is straightforward: you ask for a numbered chit, stating whether your call is
nacional or
internacional, and then make the call from a numbered cabin. You can ask for a top limit to your call, or
sin limite [
unlimited].
There are also two companies for street phones,
Porta and
BellSouth, which use phone cards. These cards can be purchased at most convenience stores, and I suggest you buy one of each. From
BellSouth phones, you always have to dial the city code, even if you’re in the city already. All cell-phones are prefixed [
09] and are pretty expensive to call.
