Agree with Chris here...

I pay $150US + TAX for a 512k - DOWN / 256 - UP ADSL Line. I happen to have a phone card style land line for local calls (mostly inbound), while most folks in Belize use mobile phones for their main lines. My total bill for the month is just under $200US with equipment rental, phone cards, taxes etc.

The shame is Simon, you shouldn't even be considering "how much more you would pay". The question should have been worded differently, starting with "Assuming BTL comes up with a competitive offering and we all had a choice..."

A US phone #, with US-based infrastructure, with an established US company with over 1.5 Million customers is what I want. These items are NON-negotiable. There are plenty of countries that enable and defend my right to access services like Vonage.

The ONLY BTL VoIP service worth a damn would be marketed to Belizeans who don't require all of the above. Current land line customers could be moved over to a converged IP/VoIP network. They could keep their same local #, get cheaper local and international rates and BTL could save a buck or two on maintaining legacy phone switches. This doesn't impact mobile revenue whatsoever (btw, fasted growing service for BTL, by FAR). Sounds great eh? Except this service, on it's own, LOWERs overall BTL revenue. Why would they do that?

VoIP, in the marketing world, is offered at "market-disrupting" price points. Traditional telcos are scared s*&tless! Most of these firms are facing the reality, seeing the future and innovating instead of blocking.

BTL has a chance to do just that, but again... WHY WOULD THEY? BTL doesn't see the international business perspective, and again... WHY SHOULD THEY?

They are living for "today". They are stuck in "today". They are getting rich, and why should they confuse the issue, putting effort into something that may compromise getting richer? I can only hope that this democracy doesn't stand for it... Belize is a democracy, right? Where is the UDP? If we don't stop them now, what is next?