Old News

It must have been a slow news week over at the Mid Ocean News as this week's paper chose to lead on an old story: the sky-high cost of internet access here.

I’ve griped about this before, but for those unfamiliar with the cost of high-speed internet access in Bermuda, the table below shows the monthly cost of the various broadband packages in the first year (with initial setup charges amortised over the year). The BTC line charge shown is the incremental cost over that of a regular phone line ($26 per month). The ISP charge is based on Northrock's prices, but the other ISPs are virtually identical.

	Broadband Speed
	128k	256k	512k
BTC Initial Setup Fee	$8	$8	$8
BTC Line Charge	$63	$63	$83
ISP Charge	$89	$139	$249
Total Monthly Charge	$160	$210	$340

According to local businessman Tony Brannon, these rates are the most expensive on the planet. Although I've been unable to find any information which conclusively proves him right, Point Topic's latest research suggests he is.

The problem appears to be that the Ministry of Telecommunications and E-Commerce has created two protected markets. The first is in access to the pipe off the Island, which is controlled by two operators, TeleBermuda International (TBI) and Cable & Wireless (C&W). The second is in the local ISP market, which the Governtment has restricted to Bermudian companies. TBI and C&W cannot compete in the residential ISP market and the local ISPs are unable to gain direct access to the pipe. Result: everyone pays through the nose.

The Government needs to better regulate these markets. TBI and C&W should be allowed to compete in the local ISP market, with the proviso that they may not use profits from other markets to subsidise their operations here (lest they drive the local ISPs out of business). And the Bermudian ISPs must be granted direct access to the pipe.

Getting it right isn't going to be easy, and I don't envy Ms. Webb her task. But prices this high are ridiculous, even by Bermuda's standards. Time to do something about it.

Comments

[Petr on 15.03.04 at 07:32]

Hi Phillip,

I just want to ask whether skinnydipping is legal
in Bermuda. Like on a totally empty beach with
nobody around...

Thanks,

Peter

[Andrew on 15.03.04 at 09:32]

Rates are too high on the island. Also, anywhere else in the world, a 128k connection doesn't qualify as "high speed." In the US, (and possibly elsewhere im not sure) you would be hard-pressed to find a 'high speed' connection of even 512k; cable modems usualy run at around 1-1.5mb and dsl starts around 768k, depending on proximity to service provider.

(Peter - I believe it is illegal. But if nobody is there to see it, is it really a crime?)

[John on 15.03.04 at 10:30]

Philip, the $63 monthly BTC charge you note, does it allow for unlimited local telephone calls? I pay $99 for that priviledge. Am I getting screwed? I know that theoretically your DSL connection is on 24/7 but I often have to reboot as my Logic service seems to hang sometimes.

[The Limey on 15.03.04 at 12:36]

John - BTC charge $89/month for a 256k DSL-capable line. As you would normally pay $26/month for a regular phone line, the extra cost broadband adds is $63.

The $99/month fee that you pay includes call waiting, call number display, 3-way calling, call forwarding and voice mail. If you don't need these features you could save yourself $10/month by going to the lower-rate plan.

Both plans include unlimited local telephone calls.

See http://www.btc.bm/D1/PR01-06-01.asp for more information.

[YYZ on 16.03.04 at 10:25]

CDN$21.95/month, unlimited access, 1Mb up and down.