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Roatan and Bay Islands Discussion List Archive
| Posted On: | 27-Sep-2003 |
| From: | "Melanie" [melanie.....com] |
| Subject: | [roatan] Telephone for everyone |
I don't know if there has been any information on the island about this program (Telefonia para todos), but it is related to the press release that Steve posted to the list last week called Liberalization of Sector (??? something like that, hey, it's Saturday morning). Basically HONDUTEL and the government are going to allow private phone companies to begin operating at some point in the future. Right now they are collecting information by voluntary surveys. A survey form came out in El Heraldo yesterday (possibly other Spanish dailies also). Anyone who has interest in a phone line, or more phone lines, can fill out the survey, and either mail it or bring it to HONDUTEL. I assume that after they collect this information, it will be made available to companies that want to provide the service. Needless to say, it would be a good idea to get as many people as possible to submit surveys, so that prospective providers can see the market possibilities in the Bay Islands. I personally thought yesterday, "Gee the Bay Islands will really shine out as a prospective market, since there is a great demand for new phone lines there." But, then today I drove past HONDUTEL down the street from my house in Tegucigalpa, and there is a line half a mile long of people wanting to turn in their survey. And the survey is just to identify the market, it doesn't really mean anything about getting a new HONDUTEL line right now. I'm going to be a pessimist here, and assure everyone that whatever new type of phone service comes in will be more expensive than HONDUTEL (who will probably also raise their rates), but since the service couldn't possibly be any worse, that part might improve. One funny observation -- I was reading the survey and it asks all the pertinent questions about phone lines, internet, etc. One of the questions was, "How many phone lines do you currently have?" And of course, any good Honduran or ex-pat knows that when dealing with HONDUTEL, you always say that you don't have any phones, so they will take you as a need-based case. Then there was a question, "How many phone lines do you want?" which seemed just shockingly brazen to actually admit that you might want more than one phone line. So, that just makes me laugh at how twisted my thought processes have become, that I feel shameful for wanting to have excess phone lines, when really . . . it's just a service, and anyone should be able to have as many phone lines as they are willing to pay for. Which is the purpose of this program, thankfully, so if people living and working on Roatan want to be on the list for all these phone lines (maybe even more than one apiece), get a copy of the survey. Check any papers from yesterday, and they accept photocopies. They have an address where the surveys can be mailed, so just fill it out and send it in. -- Melanie | |
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