diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 1a69fee0a9..4b909e05cb 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ group :test do
   gem 'ci_reporter',           '1.8.4'
   gem 'rspec-rails',           '2.10.1'
   gem 'poltergeist',           '>= 1.0.0'
+  gem 'activerecord-nulldb-adapter', '0.3.1'
 end
 
 group :development, :test do
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index b7f395bbd0..ad47730b53 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ GEM
       activesupport (= 3.2.2)
       arel (~> 3.0.2)
       tzinfo (~> 0.3.29)
+    activerecord-nulldb-adapter (0.3.1)
+      activerecord (>= 2.0.0)
     activerecord-postgres-array (0.0.10)
       activerecord
     activerecord-postgresql-adapter (0.0.1)
@@ -323,6 +325,7 @@ PLATFORMS
   ruby
 
 DEPENDENCIES
+  activerecord-nulldb-adapter (= 0.3.1)
   activerecord-postgres-array
   activerecord-postgresql-adapter
   addressable (= 2.3.2)
diff --git a/services/importer/spec/unit/namedplaces_guesser_spec.rb b/services/importer/spec/unit/namedplaces_guesser_spec.rb
index a7320f8c98..d07ecf274a 100644
--- a/services/importer/spec/unit/namedplaces_guesser_spec.rb
+++ b/services/importer/spec/unit/namedplaces_guesser_spec.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # encoding: utf-8
 
+require 'active_record'
 require_relative '../../lib/importer/namedplaces_guesser'
 
 RSpec.configure do |config|
@@ -10,6 +11,10 @@ module CartoDB::Importer2
 
   describe NamedplacesGuesser do
 
+    before(:all) do
+      ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection :adapter => :nulldb
+    end
+
     describe '#found?' do
       it 'raises an exception if not run yet' do
         content_guesser = mock
@@ -101,7 +106,6 @@ module CartoDB::Importer2
 
     describe '#namedplace_guess_country' do
       it "checks all candidates for a positive country guess through the geocoder api" do
-        pending 'make sure it can be tested without setting up connection with active record'
         content_guesser = mock
         namedplaces = NamedplacesGuesser.new(content_guesser)
 
@@ -143,7 +147,6 @@ module CartoDB::Importer2
 
     describe '#count_namedplaces_with_country_column' do
       it 'queries the geocoder to get the number of namedplaces from the sample' do
-        pending 'make sure it can be tested without setting up connection with active record'
         content_guesser = mock
         namedplaces = NamedplacesGuesser.new(content_guesser)