Fodors Travel Writer Reviews Slow Belize Internet Service

Lan Sluder FODOR’S travel writer and publisher on travel accommodations and services throughout Belize conducted a nationwide survey of middle and upper level tourism accommodations in Belize second quarter 2011.

The survey by the U.S. based travel consultant included the capacity of Internet speeds used by tourism businesses. His findings indicate that Belize is woefully poor and very expensive on Internet services and not up to the standards to compete in tourism with the rest of the world.

Mr. Sluder stated that Belize needs to urgently upgrade Internet speed and introduce reasonable prices for the industry to stay competitive, according to tourism pioneer and news blogger Mr. Raymond Auxillou writing in Western Belize Happenings quotes Mr. Sluder as saying:

“On my recent trip around Belize, from Corozal to Punta Gorda and various points in between, plus San Pedro and “Caulker, the internet ranged from pathetic (BTL DSL) to laughable (satellite).

“I love the hotels that have notices posted about their Wi Fi that it is for email only, not checking the web or downloading files. Really how can this entice people to live and start businesses in Belize?”

BTL has barely gotten out of the requirement for current speed and bandwidth this past year, which has helped commercially a lot. Still, the slowing down of connection speeds throughout the country and especially in western Belize means that they need to double the bandwidth and speed. Their fast Internet is no longer fast enough. Right now the terrible slow downs and pathetic service is noticeable most of the time during the times of the day and evening when a lot of people are on the internet. This is one of those cases, where technology either changes the playing field in internet services, or probably in this case, just customer growth and usage.

Mr. Auxillou writes that whatever the reason, BTL needs to get ahead of the technology service curve and double what they are giving in Internet speed and and stay ahead of demand. Only so will GDP grow. Plus associated taxes from more businesses generated and served.

Internet access in Belize is a government controlled monopoly. The government of Belize in 2009 expropriated privately held Belize Telemedia Limited, co-owner and landing party for the ARCOS 1 fibre optic undersea cable that is the choke-hold for  all international telecommunications traffic into and out of Belize.

A typical 2 M/bits ADSL service is available for an astounding U.S. $165. per month. This is a bare-bone service with no line, local or international calls which are billed separately.

In neighboring Mexico the same service of 2 M/bits including a commercial line and unlimited minutes of local and North American calls is available for a reasonable U.S. $50 a month. Higher speeds up to 16 M/its are available. Belize tops out at 4 M/bits.

Most Belizeans including small business and tourism lodges are only able to afford cheapest Internet package from Belize Telemedia which is 256 K at U.S. $50.