May 4th-May 10th 2000
Cayman Net News

Net Now One Dollar Per Hour

It is known that the Cayman Islands could now lead as the highest annual earnings per capita - in the Western Hemisphere - beating out places like the United States and Bermuda.

Now, Cable & Wireless (C&W) - one of the world's largest communications giant - with its 25-year exclusive franchise to be provide communication service to the Cayman Islands, and the lion's share of the English speaking Caribbean, certainly has a lot to crow about with its Cayman operations.

With the history of more telex transmission equipment in years gone by - this territory is also fast becoming the highest user of fax and mobile telephone equipment.

Compared to Barbados with its population of some quarter million residents, Cayman is right there - advancing with the communication technology provided by C&W - at a cost far more expensive than other areas in the region.

This quandary of high costs for services and goods provided to keep Cayman in step - and in some cases ahead of today's competitive world, is a necessity according to Mr. Timmy Adam, the Caymanian Country Manager of Cable & Wireless' local operations.

At a press conference held at its West Bay Road SafeHaven offices last Monday morning, Mr. Adam announced to gathering of the media corporation that, "in their continuing effort to reduce the cost of the Internet access to the people of the Cayman Islands...new prices will be put into effect from 1st of June 2000.

This reduction will come in the form of doubling the amount of hours offered on each Dial-up plan for the same price.Ê "Customers will be able to choose the plan that most benefits that depending on their usage" a press release stated.

The new package will give current customers a saving of up to 51 percent, and a customer on their new Net Master plan who is on-line for 11-20 hours will save an average pf 31 percent.

There are now some 7800 Internet subscribers on-line with C&W, with larger business accounts carrying in some cases more than fifty e-mail addresses on one account.

As Cayman's fledging Internet E-Business and other Internet related businesses continue to blossom - one of the highlights of the new plans being introduced, the Net Pro plan for high usage customers - will offer 50 hours for $50 a month.Ê One dollar per hour of usage.Ê "This represents 100 percent savings over the current Net Master plan, Mr. Adam confirmed.

Explaining the Company's reason for the reduction, Cable & Wireless General Manager Tim Adam stated that his Company "wants to open up the potential of the Internet to as many people as possible by intruding a new range of simple and low-cost packages.Ê We know our customers want lower priced Internet and we are confident they will be pleased with the value of these new packages."

The new plans include the New Starter, which is 10 hours for $17 per month; Net Surfer with 20 hours for $27; Net Master with 30 hours for $36 and a new Net Pro plan.Ê This decrease - which was expected - follows closely behind the announcement of the removal of the volume based billing for dial-up customers, which took place early last month.

In February the company also reduced the cost of dedicated Internet access by up to 78 percent.Ê Dedicated access is a high-speed connection to the Internet, which allows businesses to host their own web sites or transfer large amounts of information to their employees or customers.

"In addition to these pricing reductions, we are also committed to providing excellent service," Mr. Adam said, "We anticipate the new MAYA 1 International Fibre Optic Cable system will be ready for service in June, which means that we will have access to more bandwidth o maintain excellent service quality as our customers internet usage grows.

By transferring the majority of our international Internet traffic from satellite to the new fibre optic cable, our customers will experience even faster downloads of images, tiles and other information."Ê He suggested that there be a greater demand for Cayman's business services because of the communications channels, which will be opened up to Central and South American countries because of this investment, in excess of $200 million, by a consortium of communications companies which included $20 million by Cable & Wireless (Cayman Islands) Ltd.

Mr. Adam continued: "With new pricing structures and increased technological growth, we intend to markedly increase access to the Internet in the Cayman Islands and to underscore the importance of this technology to our shared future."

ISDN is the next Internet service the company is looking to reduce the cost.Ê "ISDN is a service ideal for the Cayman Islands. It is a high-speed dial-up service, which will allow our customers to download large amounts of information more easily. ISDN is an ideal solution for the Small Office/Home Office and Cable & Wireless is totally committed to ensuring that our customers are able to take advantage of this service," Mr. Adam concluded in his prepared remarks.

Mr. Adam alluded to the possibility that Cable & Wireless may get into the Internet advertising industry...but not as a priority. He also confirmed that visitors on business or pleasure, with cellular service in the United States and Canada - can now walk off the planes, turn on their phones and be hooked up immediately with service provided for "seamless roaming."

He confirmed that local residents will also be able to do the same when travelling to North America. They are presently "Beta testing this service...and it works". An announcement will be forthcoming from the company when this system is in place.

Cable & Wireless is planning its first web event for Internet subscribers - Jump and Click - which will be held on Saturday, the 13th of May at the Westin Hotel from noon until 6pm.Ê Similar events are planned throughout nine countries across the Caribbean and will feature live interviews with West Indies Cricketers.

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