A Limey In Bermuda

Running to stand still

There’s less than meets the eye to today’s announcement by BTC that it is upgrading its DSL customers to a faster connection at no extra cost. Customers who currently pay $89 per month for a 256 kbps upload rate and...

Speeding up the Internet

High-speed internet access in Bermuda has long been both slow and expensive. It looks like that might be about to change. CableVision has just announced its intent to launch a high-speed internet service next month. It will offer a download...

The logic of the Logos

Local bookstores and the Chamber of Commerce have been making a fuss about the arrival of the floating bookshop Logos II, which dropped its gangplank on Front Street yesterday. I think its arrival is a good thing. The local retailers...

Leaving paradise

Several weeks ago there was an interesting article in the Bermuda Sun about why some Bermudians choose to emigrate. The article looked at the undergraduate thesis of Alaina Cubbon, a Bermudian student at Oxford University, who surveyed 92 Bermudian emigrants...

What's Wrong With Buy Bermuda

Royal Gazette Opinion, Thursday 11 August 2005 Last Friday I returned from a four-day trip to Boston. Staggering back through the airport with bags bursting with my purchases, surrounded by Bermudians similarly laden down, I began to wonder just how...

Triumph Of The Restaurateurs

If you're sufficiently infuriated by a restaurant's service to summon the manager and complain that it's about the worst you've ever received, why would you think that not paying gratuities would make you a jerk? It seems that Bermuda's restaurants...

Don't Give In To Customs Officers, Consumer Group Urges Government

Consumer group Shoppers Sans Frontiers is urging the Government not to give in to disgruntled customs officers after the latter issued a 21-day strike notice earlier this weeki Asked whether it was reasonable for Government to be using part-time staff...

Chicken And Egg

Which came first: Bermuda's housing shortage or its high divorce rate? Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent and Senator Bob Richards think the divorce rate is exacerbating the housing problem. Peter Carey (program director of The Family Centre) and Althea Iris (president...

Makes You Sick

While the cost of residential DSL internet access has fallen in Bermuda in recent months, it still can't compare with what's available elsewhere in the world. On Tuesday, in the UK, Internet Service Provider UK Online announced that it was...

Information Highway Robbery

Northrock may now be offering DSL and long-distance phone calls at rates that are the cheapest on the Island and even comparable with those found elsewhere in the world, but as far as its web hosting charges go Bermudians are...

Northrock Slashes DSL Charges - Again

Not content with knocking $40 off their 256k DSL price, today Northrock carved off an additional $20, taking the price down to $78.95 per month for unmetered access. I have no idea whether Logic has followed suit as they still...

Northrock Slashes DSL Charges

I was reconciling my bank account this morning when I discovered that Northrock had only charged us $99 for our unlimited 256k DSL access this month, compared to the usual $139. Certain this must be a mistake I headed over...

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...

Ripping Us Off

Anyone who remains in any doubt about whether travellers to Bermuda are being ripped off by the airlines should read the letter from James Howes, General Manager of Bermuda International Aiport, in today's Bermuda Sun. He notes that before United...

Desperately Seeking Solution

The more new Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent opens his mouth, the more I worry that the PLP have no ideas whatsoever for tackling Bermuda's affordable housing crisis. The problem was in the news again yesterday following the announcement that a...

Two Dollar Depot

The island's first bargain basement store, the Dollar Depot, opened last week. Unlike its US counterparts, however, the cost of shipping and the rental costs for the premises means that every item in the store is two dollars, not one....

A Piece Of The Rock

Those struggling to get a foot on the property ladder in London right now should be grateful that they're not living in Bermuda. According to a recent article in the London Evening Standard, the average price of a home in...

Sunday Trading

Following strong sales during the Christmas period, boosted by store openings on the last Sunday before Christmas, the Bermuda Chamber Of Commerce is hoping to persuade the government to allow Sunday shopping year-round. Since arriving in Bermuda I've rarely missed...

Special Delivery

On Christmas Eve, Mandy and I finally thought we'd found a nice sideboard for our wedding china and crystal. It was in Hamma Galleries in Hamilton, normally the home of outrageously overpriced furniture, but this seemed good value at only...

Ecommerce Dreaming

Users in the US are signing up for broadband internet access in greater numbers than ever before (Broadband net users boom, BBC News, 15 November 2003). But analysts are now warning that this level of growth is unsustainable as there...

Buying Bermuda

One of the things Bermudians are encouraged to do is to spend their money locally rather than buying from abroad. ‘Buy Bermuda’ is a slogan you see a lot around the place. That’s easier said than done. Bermuda is a...

DSL Hell

Setting up broadband is never easy. After we received a bill of $142 from our ISP for our 56k dialup service last month, I finally decided that unmetered 256k broadband at $139 per month was worth it. Even though we...

Charge of the Tight Brigade

One thing that occasionally drives me nuts about living here is all the extra charges you have to pay for things that you don't in the UK. Here's some of the worst. 1. Bank charges. The most insidious. $3 per...

Bermuda Blues

One of the things I've been asked on a number of occasions since moving to Bermuda is if there's anything I miss about the UK. Well, it's certainly not the weather, notwithstanding the heatwave that hit London shortly after we...