The Caymanian Compass - Monday, March 20th, 2000
Internet rates to be cut by C&W, further cuts on the way
A reduction in Internet usage costs was announced by Cable & Wireless on Thursday.
The company says it is the latest phase in its ongoing plans to reduce the cost of the Internet for their customers in the Cayman Islands.
The announcement comes at the same time as the company has also announced significant reductions in its Internet prices elsewhere in the Caribbean.
The company says the first phase of the plan is removal of the volume based billing for dial-up customers. As of 1st April dial-up customers will no longer be billed the data transfer charge they pay for over two Megabytes downloaded per hour.
Cable & Wireless' General Manager, Mr Tim Adam explains the company's reason for the reduction: "This phase of our plan to reduce the cost of the Internet to our customers came about as part of our 'We Hear You' campaign. We had many dial-up customer requests to remove the volume-based billing component and we have responded.
"We are able to make this change now because we anticipate the new Maya 1 international fibre optic cable system will be ready for service in June, which means that we will have easier access to more bandwidth to maintain excellent service quality as our customers' Internet usage grows. In other words, from the beginning of April our customer s will already be reaping the benefits that our major investment in this new system will bring to the Cayman Islands.
"We are also currently reviewing the structure of our dial-up Internet price packages and Cayman customers can expect an announcement on this within the next few weeks," he said.
Announcing price reductions for the Caribbean region, Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Wireless CAI, Mr Odie Donald explained, "The Internet is the fastest-growing area of communications today, and is now becoming an essential part of both business and home life, which allows our customers to keep in touch with friends, family and the world of information in general."
The CEO also said that Cable & Wireless will be offering customers across the Caribbean an array of new products and services over the next 12 months and will continue to bring the latest technology to the Caribbean as it becomes available on the world market.