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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 1,191
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John Payne, here in Belize I'm paying $250.00US per month PLUS TAX for a 1MB DSL connection from BTL. I have two, one at home, one at the office. It's over $500.00US a month for the service. And BTL don't want me to use Vonage so they block it. I think my DSL fee is inflated to the point where I should be allowed to have Vonage or any other VOIP service I want.
I think your point would be valid in just about any other country but Belize, where we already pay 10 times what you pay and are being denied VOIP by the same phone company who gladly accept our inflated monthly fees.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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I think for the rates you pay , that BTL can include their own version of it .And you must find it an expense, and an expense you live with. Part of the price of doing business.
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 80
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I'm still doing well with Crystalvoicelive, Skype, and Net2phone over my Direcway 7700 system. Also, unrelated but I'm working though a VPN connection to work, this is a ongoing test project. If anyone is intrested in any of the above let me know.
Tom
If they tell you it won't work over satellite, they didn't try hard enough!
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,018
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Hmm, Belize is still a democracy....right?...the fact that any entity is trying to take away any right to communicate whether it be by cell phone, land line, VOIP is unacceptable. It's incredible that the citizens will allow that. One pays for an internet connection, by the way which is the most expensive I've ever experienced and BTL will block segments of that connections........on the coat tails of a dictorship!
I'm happier than a pig in s__t...a foot on the sand...and a Belikin in my hand!
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 477
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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?
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Might i remind you that the "owner" of btl has 797 million pounds.
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 991
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Perhaps the BTL customers could boycott BTL for just one day, to show them what force their customers have. I know it wouldn't make a huge difference, but maybe it would get their attention. I know it would be difficult, tho, with the businesses on the island who depend on phone service to do their business. Any other ideas on how BTL could be forced to feel their customers concerns?
Live so that when you arise in the A.M, Satan shudders & says.. 'Oh sh t..she's awake!'
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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The government can force him to modernize, and thats about it.
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 1,191
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John Payne "And you must find it an expense, and an expense you live with. Part of the price of doing business." Yes, but only if the price I'm paying allows me freedom of use.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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and the freedom to live in belize. the word freedom can be very confusing sometimes. Does being a free american mean that it should be expanded whereevr you go, or does it mean that one must adapt to new cultures and languages that represents another kind of freedom altogether.
Anyway its overhead , it usually goes up , sometimes it goes down.
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