Hello. I have been to Belize before and I am considering starting a business and adding another option for Internet access to Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye. This would not be DSL. It would be faster than that and more reliable. Are residents and businesses on Caye Caulker and Ambergris looking for better options? What would you be willing to pay for a 5 Mbps or 10 Mbps connection? Are you looking for more speed? What part of your internet choices are really bad or really good? Would you buy from another provider if one was available?

Unfortunately, we have had the worse luck with internet connections here....We've used both our current options which is BTL & Coral Cable. BTL works the best of the two, however neither are reliable...... Two days ago I needed to send one email and was unable to access the internet for more than 3 hours from either our home or our business......we pay for 2mpbs and seldom have what I remember as dial up...... However the issues range from power outages to the amount of users on our one feed......The one at the Restaurant is more reliable than the one at home simply because there are fewer users on that line......Many of our friends have left the island because they cannot do business here via internet. And we know of other companies who have come to town, invested great deals of money and not be able to get their access off the ground. If it was a project I was going to take on I would start with our Belize PUC......They have strict rules about other companies and have shut down ones who have tried to by-pass the PUC .....Lots of challenges even for the users of satellite access internet..... I was with NEC for years and bringing internet access to remote areas was one of our many focuses.....After living here for so many years and understanding the infrastructure limitations along with the monopoly based companies I would not attempt it......However, you may know or have access to something I do not.....Either way good luck......

Just for clarification, Coral Cable IS BTL, just once removed. Coral Cable subscribes to BTL and the resells the signal vastly diluted, along its cable lines.

I have BTL in my home office and have found it reliable, none of the outages Judy references. Perhaps it is the equipment in a particular area that limits reception?

Smart is now offering a good alternative. Might want to check into that.

Thanks for this information! What is the NEC? And by saying other companies have come to invest, do you mean other Internet companies? Can you give me any of their names?

Hi everyone. I am brand new to this forum. I have fallen in love with Amergris Caye but I work remotely via the internet and MUST have reliable service. I need to be connected 540 minutes per day 5 days a week. Is there any hope?

My husband & I live just North of the bridge- we have Coral Cable internet, no problems at all, our neighbor also works from his home and has told us he is very pleased with Coral Cable's internet service

I too live north of the bridge and my main complaint is that there is no way to get anything done during off hours - and there are many - 22 holidays per year. Just before the last holiday - that Friday evening I found I had no internet; Coral Cable. Since Monday was a holiday I could not reach anyone until Tuesday morning. It was mid day before repair men got here and it took almost 3 hours to get the needed replacement equipment installed. This means that for virtually 5 days I had nothing.
I've asked about getting a listing for after hours service and get just a snicker and no return call from either of the Mr. Pete Salazar's.

Not sure about the Coral Cable reliability these days.....We are located in South San Pedro and while living at Pelican Reef Villas from 2003 to 2010 we were continuously punted in the middle of internet based conferences..... Nonetheless the infrastructure is much better now, however our television through Coral Cable is also unreliable, many times the cable goes out during a programmed show (I enjoy IDTV) .....BTL has served us well, however I would never try to do the work I did at NEC on the internet here..... NEC is an acronym for Nippon Electronic Company, at one time the largest electronic company in the world..... Long before AT&T, Lucent Technologies ...In fact setting the standard of telecom world wide. I worked in Research & Development completing projects of voice to text and video conferencing back in the early 90's....Of course it has improved to much greater levels......However, none of it works in Belize without proper internet..... If you have another option that can be brought into the country I know it would be welcomed as long as the PUC gives the thumbs up (everything through proper channels). Again as early as last month a family left the island because he could not complete his global computer programming contracts from here as needed. The internet was unreliable and too slow for the needs of a computer based business....... Now with all this said I recently talked with a gentlemen who stated that Fiber is now being laid underground on the island and we did notice two large spools last week unloaded in the area. So maybe there is hope.....We are slow to improve here, but we do improve..... SQLdeveloper.... love it....SQL was the last focus I worked, connecting everything to the computer world wide (even our coffee pots )..... The power outages alone can be a challenge for someone who needs to be connected at all times..... It would be frustrating to say the least; to be online and coding for a customer in Ontario only to lose power near the end of the project......

As far as the other companies that came in, I cannot remember their names....However I'm sure someone on this board might.... We had a company that began VOIP and were shut down daily....It would work a couple days and then get thwarted again.......This was less than 10 years ago, however I can't remember their name... It was in the paper weekly and often an online discussion....The rumors ranged from stealing business from the phone company monopoly to not using proper tariff charges through the PUC.... Of course they are long gone, another one I remember was Hughesnet only here a few months ....Unless there are people out there still using those giant satellites without trouble...

If you need reliable internet I think Solar power (or wind) is a must. I love my solar system and am working on expanding it.
I just did some research on 'Flower Solar".
There are so many improvements happening so fast. Tesla is introducing solar tiles to use in place of other roofing materials.
It seems to me if enough people got together and placed one big order we should be able to get the prices even lower.