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That's right, I rememebr having to cough that deposit up for BTL, ow. I missed the fact we were talking about cable here. So the 512k is synchronous then?

Boy..San Pedro is expensive and why is that if we are all dealing with BTL. I have high speed internet and pay $50 us a month.No Deposit through the home show. Got my motem for free, no deposit and I believe you can still do that twice a year at the Home Show in Belize City. I had to replace the motem but that was OK because I needed a router for my wifi.

The major deposit is on the phone line. It may just be a San Pedro thing due to short term residents racking up huge phone bills and them skipping out on them. When I sold my phone number with my business the cost of getting a new phone line and Internet was going to be about $500US plus the monthly fees.

Deb are you on cable or using dsl?

On CC it comes in on a coax cable, with modem, they call it DSL?
Is it? Would love to know.
You don't hear the zee-zee noise like dial-up?

Hi I did a lot of reading about BTL and the rates they charge are just crazy!! At my hause (back in europe) I pay 30USD for 25Mbps and in San Pedro 4Mbps cost like 425USD - crazy.

Anyway I did find out that BTL is apparently faster and more reliable (please confirm if that is true or not, I would be more than happy if I could use Coral Cable instead) BUT they do block VoIP including skype!! I do not make many conference calls over the skype but I do use text messaging using skype - I wonder if they do block that too??

If some of the BTL users could confirm they do/don't block skype text messaging - I would know what that is the situation - you can as well contact me on skype - my nick is rakowaty.

I was unable to find any informations on Coral cable internet, only that it is not as fast - but I wonder what are the speeds and prices, if someone could give some info, would be great!

Thank you!

Edit. I should have read the previous posts - some of my questions were answered. The only remaining is if the skype works or not in BTL or CC.

Coral Cable is effectively the same as BTL as they route through BTL. BTL blocks Skype.

I just recently bought a USB internet box from BTL. Deposit was $1000.00 BZ and the unit was $389.00 BZ.. It has 1-3 kbps speed depending on who else has one near you. It is unlimited internet. I have enjoyed it for the last 2 weeks since I bought it.

JEL - is it 1-3kbps or 1-3Mbps (if 1-3kbps this seems really slow...)? Is it DSL or something else?
Also why didn't you go with Coral Cable it seems cheaper...

Artisan, DSL, digital subscriber line, is internet provided to a business or household over telephone lines. It is not dial up it is a constant signal to the subscriber. The technology employs different frequencies so that internet is carried on one frequency and voice on another. A small filter, probably a capacitor circuit, is plugged into the wall jack. It has two connection points one for internet and one for voice. A DSL modem is plugged into the internet circuit side of the filter (and your computer into the modem) and your telephone is plugged into the other. Internet is not supplied to every telephone connection only those who subscribe to DSL so dont think you can just get one of these little filters and a DSL modem and get internet. You can purchase different quality of services that increase the speed or bandwidth of data transmission. The higher the speed the more it costs you. I am not familiar with what BTL can or cant provide.

Cable uses an internet protocol known as Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, or DOCSIS but most people obviously refer to it as simply "cable internet". Using this a cable company can supply its customers with internet, TV and even voice but instead of telephone wires used for DSL it uses a coaxial cable. Coaxial cable is that round cable you often see plugged or screwed into the back of TV's or a cable box like in a hotel room. Cable uses more or less the same approach as DSL in that it too supplies internet, cable tv and even voice over different frequencies. But it can tranmsit farther than DSL. DSL requires that you be within a certain distance of a telephone center or relay point to receive a good signal. the farther away you are from the "station" the likelyhood increase your'e going to have a signal of lesser quality than someone living closer to the source. Cable isnt like that it can reach much farther out than DSL.

So you have this cable with all these signals on it. Once a basic cable insatllation is done on the house and cerain filters are installed for the various services that the subscriber pays for, a TV uses its tuner circuits to separate out the signal it needs from the cable, a cable telephone/adaptor recognizes its own signal frequency and a cable modem for internet separates out its signal. Again your computer is plugged into the cable modem.

How the Cable Company gets its internet connection to supply its cusotmers can vary. Sometimes they buy backbone access directly or maybe they buy it from the telephone company and convert it to their own transmission frequencies for their customers. Simon indicated he thought Coral Cable purchased internet bandwidth for redistirbution from BTL.

I undersatnd that BTL puts filters on their internet signal that may block VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)like SKYPE and Coral cable does not. I am not familiar with who does what.

Like anything if the demand is high enough and there are fewer providers cost is going to be higher. If the market bears the cost the provider will charge it. To compare and complain what one can get for x amount of $$ in the States, Denmark or Timbuktu, with what one pays for similar or even slower speeds in Belize is, well a waste of bandwidth.