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Roatan and Bay Islands Discussion List Archive
| Posted On: | 13-Apr-2003 |
| From: | [reefdweller.....com] |
| Subject: | [roatan] RE: island cell phones |
We moved here to stay -- for good -- in early Dec of 1998 (right after hurricane Mitch) and found no phone service available other than expensive/impossible to get hard line service ($25,000 USD minimum cost) or radio phones without two way, internet or USA ability. We got a marine radio and applied for our cellular the moment it became available--roughly in Jan of that year. After much wrangling over billing stuff and programming hassles, we got one of the first Cel Tel cellular phone numbers. Our phone was in service (mostly) in Feb. 1999. We then rigged it (after a trip stateside for internet capable equipment) for limited, slow, expensive, dial up internet access shortly thereafter. We still have the same cellular number, though we updated to a larger "bag phone" system for better signal strength about a year later. On Aug 26, 2002, we added to this system a "hard line," phone number with better dial up speed and MUCH less expensive rates. We get our 455 French Harbour phone "beamed" to an antenna on our house and from an antenna in French Harbour. My understanding is that these local call systems are no longer available from Tropico due to problems getting phone numbers allotted from Roatan phone offices. In fact, after a year of trying, we have been unable to get this phone number in our name and must pay Tropico's phone bill on our number each month to Hondutel. This system has been pretty reliable and has saved us a bundle in $$ and frustration VS the old cellular system. However, there are only 3 of us on the island with this system. It cost us roughly $2,000 to install and $20 per month to keep online. The upside is that we get our Hondusoft internet connection at $10 per month as a result of our Tropico system. And we pay non cellular rates for local phone calls--including to dial up for internet. To my knowledge there is still no form of commutation system that covers the entire mountain-covered island completely. Even next door neighbors can find that one person can get a signal and the next can not. Providers are VERY conscientious about checking for signal strength functions at a given location before installing these expensive systems. High speed internet is here--with some voice over internet functions for USA calls. Two companies, both Tropico and Globalnet offer this service in limited areas. To my knowledge there still is no system currently available on Roatan for local calls other than cellular, expensive phones which are still limited to areas. Exceptions are for the few living where hard lines can be run--near town -- and IF you can bribe, con, or coerce the local phone Nazis or someone with a phone into selling you a phone number and running the phone line to your home at great hassle and expense. We still keep both as both systems functional for phone and internet as both are somewhat imperfect as to reliability at times. We also keep both internet providers paid--Hondusoft and Globalnet as both of them are known have outages, random disconnections on paid bills and other bizarre techno problems due to NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN at times. this is a VERY harsh environment of electronics--heat, salt, electric power outages, storms, high winds and probably other unknown factors all conspire to wreck electronics here. The folks on Roatan working to provide these communications systems with both companies are ALL great folks. But all are swamped with service requests, understaffed, and laboring under many obstacles to provide the service to what is, by USA standards, still a small group of folks who really are not, at this point, paying enough money to make these systems profitable overall to their providers--yet. The list of problems these folks face daily in getting equipment shipped in, power, technical staff, licenses and on and on--are more than I could list in under 100 pages. In short, we owe a HUGE THANK YOU, to all of those helping bring communication to this little island in the 3rd world! Being patient with them and paying our bills on time is all we know to do to help. We ARE getting there with communications, but it will take time and patience--and the support of the investors involved who must wait patiently (we hope) to recover their initial investments--much less to make a profit. More than you asked--I know--but I've answered this about 100 times before and so expected further questions as soon as I posted the first response. Hope this answers most of them. And, as always, we hope this helps! Waylon and Sandy Sims Coral Beach Inn's Photos are available at: http://members.aol.com/athundersm/photos.htm Note: E-mail is NOT perfect. Please never assume we have received your message unless you get a response from us. We answer ALL E-mail daily. PS Asking about staying with us gets you put onto our newsletter list. If you want off just say so. No problem. -----Original Message----- From: Ron Thompson [mailto:TuncoUno.....rr.com] Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2003 2:01 PM To: reefdweller.....com Subject: island cellphones Hi Sandy, you were one of the first folks I knew on the island with a cellphone.. did you get one as soon as it was offered? when was that? David and I are just trying to recall when cellphones first came to Roatan. Believe it or not, there is a point to this . Just can't say what - yet. Thanks, Ron Get a FREE REFINANCE QUOTE - click here! | |
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