3 Mbps broadband on the way?

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that BTC has announced that it is seeking approval from the Telecommunications Commission to introduce a 3 Mbps residential broadband service. Provisionally the service will be available for $109 per month, with 2 Mbps available for $89 per month (the current price of their 1.5 Mbps service).

Even if this becomes a reality, however, residents still won't have access to a 3 Mbps internet connection unless the ISPs also start offering one. This is by no means a foregone conclusion. No ISP is currently advertising a 1.5 Mbps residential service, although Bill Dickinson, Transact's Senior Vice President for Sales & Marketing, told me that Transact does offer one. Mr. Dickinson also said that Transact will offer increased speeds if BTC introduces its 3 Mbps service. A Logic customer support representative told me that they "intend to deliver Internet at bandwidth corresponding to the local loop provider/s". At time of writing, I haven't received a response from Northrock.

That said, even if the ISPs don't follow BTC's lead, there may be other uses for the extra bandwidth. As BTC COO Edgar Dill pointed out in an email to the Computer Society of Bermuda:

"BTC sees DSL as a broadband connection to the home that can be used for a multitude of purposes, the Internet is just one such application, e.g. I have a VoIP phone set in my home that does not require the services of an ISP. So rather than looking for more from the ISP maybe you could challenge your members and the general public to suggest what else they would like to see delivered to their homes using this broadband connection."

That may be so, but I suspect that faster Internet is what most of us want from our broadband connection. If BTC's plan is approved (and I can't imagine why it wouldn't be), hopefully the ISPs will be quicker to give us the benefit of it than they have been with BTC's current 1.5 Mbps capability.

Comments

[Rev. Goat on 12.04.06 at 20:38]

Doesn't the whole bandwidth issue lie with the service providers? The ISP's that buy the bandwidth from C&W and TB the resell it to us.

My concern is that with so many IPS's per capita that they cannot possibly have a large enough customer base to drop prices and increase bandwidth without losing money. Sort of the opposite end of the "increased competition" idea to reduce consumer prices. There is to much , disallowing discounts due to operating costs.

I believe that either some of the 7 or more ISP's for 30K households either go bust or prices never drop. The only people that benefit from this upgrade will be IB who can afford to pay $2000 a month for over T1 speeds.

Personally I don’t think the home user will ever see anymore than 512K for quite some time to come, unless there is a drastic reduction in the costs from the backbone suppliers.

[observor on 12.04.06 at 20:49]

Rev. - just tested my connection and I'm averaging over 1 mbps ... for now.

[Rev. Goat on 12.04.06 at 21:25]

Observer thats nice that you have that, who's your ISP and whats it costing you.

I am on northrock wireless, they can only provide 256K max wirelessly which really sucks but at least it's reliable. They are supposed to be upgrading it but I think xmas will be here before they do that.

[Marcus on 13.04.06 at 04:00]

I'm still a little confused to what the ISP actually offers. From a technical pov, I get the billing etc side.

After all if Mr Dill gets his VoIP phone to work it's getting an IP address from somewhere but apparently not an ISP. And how is this working without using the internet? Is he talking about a local (BM wide) network?

[Somers on 13.04.06 at 08:38]

" If BTC's plan is approved (and I can't imagine why it wouldn't be)"

Yeah I know it will be approved too, but wouldn't if be nice if it wasn't approved based on the fact that of them ripping the consumer off again, price-wise that is...

I think I'll go buy some KeyTech/BTC stock this morning...

[sandgrownan on 13.04.06 at 08:42]

I was recently asked by research.bm for my views on the local telecoms infrastructure in the context of running a business in Bermuda and also in the context of eCommerce. yup. eCommerce. What could Michael Scott do to improve things if anything?

I thought long and hard about this and came up with a few ideas.
1) The infrastructure and service in Bermuda is.....adequate, acceptable at best. Not suitable for eCommerce.
2) The pricing is too high, particularly for home users. I applaud this initiative by BTC, but it's way too late and way too expensive. By the tiem you add on an ISP charge you effectively deny internet access for low income families and crucially their children which will have a negative educational effect.
It also seems odd to me why there are two charges - elsewhere in the world you pay one fee, that's it.
3) Michael should, in my view, deregulate the whole telecoms industry. BTC should be forced to offer number portability and others should be allowed to offer residential phone service. I don't want to be told I can't have such and such a servcie becasue the provider has the wrong kind of license.

Some companies may go under..but tough. It's a business with discerning customers who have had crap service and high prices for way too long. I do take Rev. Goats point that this is a finite market.

Bermuda will never be an eCommerce centre until pricing and service is competitive.

[Adjustah on 13.04.06 at 08:59]

"Bermuda will never be an eCommerce centre until pricing and service is competitive."

And sadly, by the time that happens, they will have missed the boat entirely...

[Somers on 13.04.06 at 10:00]

That boat long since sailed mate.

[Adjustah on 13.04.06 at 10:41]

True dat. I was amused to see BTC's advertising piece in the Gazette this morning with the slogan: "BTC DSL: Learn Something New Every Day".

Sooooo many comments.

Above that was the question, "You get free unlimited local calling when you sign up for DSL from BTC. Did you know that?"

A: Do I care? Noone calls the landline anymore - we all have cell phones. The only reason I have a home number is because I need a computer connection. A decent one. Gee, so what are my options there, huh? Who am I going to get a phone line from? Gosh. Hmmmm, I wonder...

Here's hoping they learn something new today and lower their rates.

[Murmur on 13.04.06 at 11:01]

Save your applause. BTC just flips a switch and its done. But you'd pay over $1000 monthly to actually get that capacity in your house.

There is something of a racket in broadband service here. I spoke to a St. Lucian yesterday who has reliable high-speed internet in his house for $30 monthly. He doesn't pay extra for a specially provisioned line either.

TBI & BTC (especially) and the ISPs are getting wealthy off the backs of broadband consumers in Bermuda. If they deny it, they should start publicizing their margins on IP services. Truth be told, they are using these profits to prop up inefficient segments of their businesses.

We buy so easily into the old saw that it is too expensive and the market is too limited to reduce prices. Well the same thing was said of long distance rates and those dropped by 90% not too long ago.

Transparency in ISP regulation would help, as would opening up some frank public discussion about the extortionate cost of broadband Internet service to Bermuda consumers.

[Palm trees by the sea. on 13.04.06 at 13:07]

With respect to voice and internet provision, the buck stops with C&W and TBI.

They must pay for the fibre infrastructure off island to provide all the connectivity we require. That is bloody expensive and that (along with economies of scale) is what differentiates us from other countries etc.

eCommerce? What is that anyway? Sandy - why is the infrastructure not good enough? Good enough for what?

Bermuda crippled itself long ago by not allowing porn and gambling transactions to be settled here. Ralph touched on this one a few weeks ago. Gambling and Porn account for 99.9999999999999999999% of all commerce on the internet. What's left isnt worth fighting over.

[sandgrownan on 13.04.06 at 14:33]

Ptbts - It's not good enoguh because it breaks and is expensive.

That may be tolerable in an insurance company, or for an accounting firm or even for a bank if the outage is short enough. But if you are talking about true eCommerce - settling transactions online, for example, for a truly online business, then forget it. As others have said in this post - it's too late.

I agree with the last part of your post however, but would add overly restricitve licesning for providing service to the consumer be that residential or commercial.

[Somers on 13.04.06 at 14:53]

As I understand it, Bermuda is a hub in the Atlantic undersea telecommunications network... Seems to me like the economies of scale arguement is a red herring in all this.

[sandgrownan on 13.04.06 at 14:56]

You're dead right Somers

[TheRealDeal on 13.04.06 at 15:01]

Murmur is totally right. BTC is pulling the wool over the uneducated. All they are doing is flipping a switch. 99.9% of all DSLAMS (The BTC end of the phone line.) are manufactured these days with a standard of a minimum of 8 mbps capacity. Also just to let you know, the cost to establish that line is about $50 per port (Based on 2003 stats on DSL pricing). Your initial setup fee for so called DSL probably covers there setup costs. So what does the monthly become? Pure profit!

On a side note, just to let you all know that a few years ago Bermuda was approached to be a point on an undersea fiber network run by Global Crossings. I can't remember the details on the deal but I imagine that C&W must have objected or the current government at the time didn't think we needed it. Global Crossings is even run out of Bermuda and we didn't even become a point on the network. This is probably one of the reasons why we are getting hosed today by current bandwidth providers.

[Uncle Elvis on 13.04.06 at 15:18]

Let's not forget that broadband is really the only option in Bermuda right now, as dialup (from northrock, at least) is consistently... well, awful is not strong enough.
You get unlimited local calls with DSL, but you NEED the unlimited local calls for dialup, where you have to reconnect every 20 minutes or do.

Do they just not care about dialup customers? Or is this a push to get everyone on broadband?
WHY is dialup SO fricking atrocious?

And why is my DSL dropping off for no reason, late at night, every night, for over a week? I thought it was something to do with my computer, but it happens exactly on the hour every time. Aren't they supposed to send us an email when service is going to be down?

[Uncle Elvis on 13.04.06 at 15:19]

that should be "every 20 minutes or so."

[Triforce on 13.04.06 at 16:29]

Dial-up is a pain, but economically it's the only option to many of us. $25.95 at 30kbps beats any DSL or wireless option for the time being, I say with regret.

Mind you it took years and competition for the ISPs to finally drop the $75 for 25 hours crap we had to deal with previously...

[Tired Of Politics on 14.04.06 at 12:27]

Hey don’t expect Northrock to match anytime soon. They are the SUCKIEST ISP on the island HANDS down with the least friendly or intelligent staff... They have been calling people who use "too much" bandwidth in their "unlimited" plans who actually pay EXTRA for the higher speeds on purpose, telling them that they do not want to keep them as customers anymore!!!

Have you ever heard of this before?!? I have heard of this happening to a lot of my friends who download music frequently etc. They are too cheap to invest in some more bandwidth, yet they want to just keep on taking your money left right and center... The lag on their network due to selling, in essence bandwidth that they don’t have is horrid... The short of this is that if you want to see these new speeds, not be harassed for accessing them and have any sort of quality on your internet connection, Northrock is not the ISP for you ;0 Northrock, if you don’t want to offer proper internet service, why ARE you in business...???

-Tired of Politics

[Sketchy on 16.04.06 at 01:29]

Looks like I got here a bit late but, as usual, some people here could do with reading up on the topic before spouting off.

Yes, we get ripped off but the only way to change that is to stop paying. The only problem there is that international business will keep paying regardless. The other thing is that we get ripped off less than you may think.

Any DSL/cable modem user runs the risk of getting kicked off if they think that they can keep downloading music and movies at full speed, 24/7. This applies anywhere in the world - unlimited access does not equate to unlimited bandwidth.

I could go into more detail but I've already deleted an essay once.

[Denis Pitcher on 16.04.06 at 03:08]

Things will change in the near future, they have to.

We're either going to see some form of WiMax, WiBro or WiFi Mesh launched if anyone with influence is smart enough. That will help boost the potential of things. I personally believe we should be promoting it rather then restricting it with heavy licensing restrictions.

I also wonder how much of our traffic goes off island in analog phone form or if it's digital and whether our full potential for bandwidth is utilized.

[Denis Pitcher on 16.04.06 at 03:19]

Actually, that does make me wonder why no mesh community wireless network movement has been started in Bermuda.

[SomeImportantFacts on 16.04.06 at 12:24]

I work at one of the mentioned ISPs on this list.

TBI/C&W Do not own any capacity off the island. They actually lease capacity from Brazil Telecom, and don't do anything to us ISPs except increase our costs and hold ecomm/p2p etc back here. Every ISP on the island HAS to purchase capacity from TBI/C&W. TBI/C&W do not add any value!!!

The cable network Brazil Telecom (which they bought from 360Networks) has practically, un-limited bandwidth. If any of us real ISPs were to connect directly to this cable, you would all see substainal drops in prices, and increases in speed.

Imagine Marketplace having to purchase all its groceries from Miles... how well would that work?

TBI/C&W/BTC do not pay ANY Duty on equipment they bring in. All the ISPs do, and have to pass that onto our clients

Long distance rates, and internet prices have falled dramactically over the years, because of ISPs not because of TBI/C&W.

Next time your at the airport, look at the building next to TBIs building. Take a look at the name on it...

[Palm Trees By The Sea on 16.04.06 at 23:09]

Mr Facts, I know CW are duty exempt. I know that they also pay some other fat fee to govt to gain this 'status'. I dont believe the same is true of TBI and BTC.

The ISP's must purchase the bandwidth from CW/TBI because of the licensing structure in place. They purchase the IRUs from the Brazilian fellows and resell that capacity to the ISPs and end users at a price they feel can sustain their businsess. Supply and Demand. It would be fair to say that we (Bermuda) arent even tickling the capacity on that fibre system.

You are bang on that the long distance rates have fallen because of the ISPs. I dont necessarily view this as a Good Thing.

Look at the infrastructure either of these telecoms providers have to support. Look at what they are expected to support for what? 17c per min? What happens when one of their core telephone switches fails. Back in the day, they would have quickly switched to a backup that was there already onsite. Well guess what - for 17c per minute they cant afford one.

What happens if the Brazil cable fails? We switch to a backup? Backup where? Satellite? That wont cut what we need these days - not even close. Backup fibre system - the CW PTAT & CARAC systems are knocking on about 20 years old now.

And whoever said that Bermuda was going to become, or is already, some sort of transatlantic crossing point for sub sea cable systems is a little mistaken (Sandy, Somers). Global Crossing was (still is) based here but in nothing more than a head office capacity same as many hundreds of other companies here.

The only fibre systems that land here are the two CW ones, CARAC and PTAT and the Brazil Telecom one (used to be called ATLANTICA-1).

Bottom line, everybody has to make a buck - I dont believe the ISPs are scalping us. BTC could be a whole lot better for sure but I dont believe they are substantially worse than any similar telco overseas.

[SomeImpprtantfacts on 17.04.06 at 14:26]

Per the 2005 Customs Tariff:

CPC: 4167 Duty Rate: 0%
Description:
Telecommunications equipment.
Scope of Relief (Applicable Commodities):
Telecommunications equipment, apparatus and machinery
Conditions / Restrictions:
All telecommunications equipment, apparatus and machinery required for use
by TeleBermuda International Ltd. or Brasil Telecom Subsea Cable Systems
(Bermuda) Ltd. in the renewal, provision, operation, repair or extension of their
tele-communications installations, subject to the following proviso —
No exemption is granted in the case of any item to be installed on premises
not owned by TeleBermuda International Ltd. or Brasil Telecom Subsea
Cable Systems (Bermuda) Ltd. (unless a waiver is granted by the Minister
of Finance in consultation with the Minister responsible for
telecommunications).

[Palm Trees By The Sea on 17.04.06 at 20:05]

I stand corrected. BTC aint exempted though is it?