Net Now One Dollar Per Hour
With 27 percent penetrationof telephone subscribers on-line, Cayman beats out the UnitedStates which averages 23 percent.
It is known that the Cayman Islands could now leads as thehighest annual earnings per capita - in the Western Hemisphere- beating out places like the United States and Bermuda.
Now, Cable and Wireless (C & W) - one of the world's largestcommunications giant - with its 25-year exclusive franchise tobe provide coommunications service to the Cayman Islands, andthe lion's share of the English speaking Caribbean, certainlyhas a lot to crow about with its Cayman operations.
With the a history of more telex transmission equipment in yearsgone by - this territory is also fast becoming the highest userof fax and mobile telephone equipment.
Compared to Barbados with its population of some quarter millionresidents, Cayman is right there - advancing with the communicationtechnology provided by C & W - at a cost far more expensivethan other areas in the region.
This quandary of high costs for services and goods provided tokeep Cayman in step - and in some cases ahead of today's competitiveworld, is a necessity, according to Mr. Timmy Adam, the CaymanianCountry Manager of Cable and Wireless' local operations.
At a press conference held at its West Bay Road Safehaven officeslast Monday morning, Mr. Adam announced to the gathering of themedia corp, that "in their continuing effort to reduce thecost of the Internet access to the people of the Cayman Islands... new prices will be put into effect from the 1st of June 2000.
This reduction will come in the form of doubling the amount ofhours offered on each Dial-up plan for the same price. "Customerswill be able to choose the plan that most benefits them dependingon their usage." a press release stated.
The new packages will give current customers a saving of up to51 percent, and a customer on their new Net Master plan who ison-line for 11-20 hours will save an average of 31 percent.
There are now some 7800 Internet subscribers on-line with C &W, with larger business accounts carrying in some case more thanfifty e-mail addresses on one account.
As Cayman's fledgling Internet E-business and other Internet relatedbusinesses continue to blossom - one of the highlights of thenew plans being introduced, the Net Pro plan for high usage customers- will offer 50 hours for $50 a month. One dollar per hour ofusage. "This represents 100 percent savings over the currentNet Master plan, Mr. Adam confirmed.
Explaining the Company's reason for the reduction, Cable &Wireless General Manager Tim Adam stated that his Company "wantsto open up the potential of the Internet to as many people aspossible by introducing a new range of simple and low-cost packages.We know our customers want lower priced Internet and we are confidentthey will be pleased with the value of these new packages."
The new plans include the Net Starter, which is 10 hours for $17per month; Net Surfer with 20 hours for $27; Net Master with 30hours for $36 and the new Net Pro plan. This decrease - whichwas expected - follows closely behind the announcement of theremoval of the volume based billing for dial-up customers, whichtook place early last month.
In February the company also reduced the cost of dedicated Internetaccess by up to 78 percent. Dedicated access is a high speed connectionto the Internet which allows businesses to host their own websites or transfer large amounts of information to their employeesor customers.
"In addition to these pricing reductions, we are also committedto providing excellent service," Mr. Adam said. "Weanticipate the new MAYA 1 International Fibre Optic Cable systemwill be ready for service in June, which means that we will haveaccess to more bandwidth to maintain excellent service qualityas our customers Internet usage grows.
By transferring the majority of our international Internet trafficfrom satellite to the new fibre optic cable, our customers willexperience even faster downloads of images, files and other information."He suggested that there will be a greater demand for Cayman'sbusiness services because of the communications channels whichwill be opened up to Central and South American countries becauseof this investment, in excess of $200 million, by a consortiumof communications companies which included $20 million by Cable& Wireless (Cayman Islands) Ltd.
Mr. Adam continued: "With new pricing structures and increasedtechnological growth, we intend to markedly increase access tothe Internet in the Cayman Islands and to underscore the importanceof this technology to our shared future."
ISDN, is the next Internet service the company is looking to reducethe cost. "ISDN is a service ideal for the Cayman Islands.It is a high-speed dial-up service which will allow our customersto download large amounts of information more easily. ISDN isan ideal solution for the Small Office/Home Office and Cable &Wireless is totally committed to ensuring that our customers areable to take advantage of this service," Mr. Adam concludedin his prepared remarks.
Mr. Adam alluded to the possibility that Cable and Wireless mayget into the Internet advertising industry ... but not as a priority.He also confirmed that visitors on business or pleasure, withcellular service in the United States and Canada - can now walkof the planes, turn on their phones and be hooked up immediatelywith service provided for "seamless roaming.
He confirmed that local residents will also be able to do thesame when traveling to North America. They are presently "Betatesting this service ... and it works". An announcement willbe forthcoming from the company when this system is in place.
Cable and Wireless is planning its first web event for Internetsubscribers - Jump and Click - which will be held on Saturday,which will be held on Saturday, the 13th of May at the WestinHotel from noon until 6:00 pm. Similar events are planned throughoutnine countries across the Caribbean and will feature live interviewswith West Indies Cricketers.