Each ISP service having broad coverage areas with rapidly expanding networks.
They are: DSL (Batelco), Cable (Cable Bahamas) and Wireless Broadband (Out Island Internet and Abacom Wireless Services).
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is offered by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company, formerly BatelCo.
Accessed through an existing phone service, it allows customers to connect to the Internet without tying up their regular phone lines. As with all the above named providers, it is a broadband high speed connection. As yet it is available in select areas of Abaco but others are steadily coming on line.
Batelco boasts of a 24 hour hotline for tech support and friendly staff are available for information regarding residential and commercial packages weekdays during working hours at their Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay offices. Orientation programmes are offered to those unfamiliar with the Internet.
Cable Internet is offered by Cable Bahamas. It is similar to DSL in terms of speed but it is a “shared network”, meaning speeds may vary according to the number of users simultaneously on line. The service is supplied to the customer through an existing cable TV subscriber line.
Cable Bahamas, as well as Batelco, offers fiber-optic connections for commercial grade Internet subscribers, and secure private networks such as financial institutions and large companies requiring additional bandwidth to conduct business over the Internet. It is also an “Upstream Service Provider”, which means broadband width can be purchased from them by other Internet providers. In Abaco both OII and AWS use this facility.
Mr. Eric Russell, President of Freeport-based Cable Bahamas likened it to a “gas station providing the fuel”.
Cable Bahamas has its own fiber loop connecting New Providence, Eleuthera, Abaco and Grand Bahama. Each has a 24 hour hotline for clients. Cable offers packages for homes and businesses at varying speeds – as does DSL in Marsh Harbour, Dundas Town, Murphy Town, Cherokee, Man O’War, Hope Town and Spring City.
Coverage is expanding and upgrading of bandwidths should be in effect by the summer.
For clients “on the go” and located in areas where neither phone connection nor cable is available or possible the new and exciting “wireless Internet” is in existence. Descending upon Abaco like a massive communication “cloud”, it has fast become popular among yachtsmen as they can roam the Abaco Sound without having to be connected to a telephone line. No strings attached. The two companies at the forefront of this service are Out Island Internet (OII) and AWS Ltd. (Coconut Telegraphs). Both have overlapping coverage on the mainland and the outer cays. The wireless signal is similar to the Marine VHF transmissions although on a very different frequency and is very much “line of sight”.
Reception is very good. However, it is decreased or cut out completely when blocked by boat hulls, electrical emissions, trees, hills etc. For marine use is a clear, inexpensive and convenient route to the Internet.
Equipment necessary to connect ranges from a small credit card sized radio receiver to a cigarette-packed sized transceiver. In the open air access ranges between a quarter of a mile to four miles. The farther the distance, the slower the connection may be. Where interference is a factor equipment needs to be upgraded and this is often costly. Initial set-up may be expensive to some but this pales next to that the benefits of speedy Internet access and the alternative of trenching in remote areas where n other Internet service is possible or available.
Currently OII, owned and operated by Chris Claridge and Tara Hingle, and AWS Ltd owned and operated by Malcolm Spicer and Sinclair Frederick, have wireless Internet from Green Turtle Cay in the north to Bahama Palm Shores in the south. Both companies are quickly expanding and plan to serve Abaco in its entirety.
These companies are striving to improve and facilitate Internet services by making them more available, faster and less costly. Everyone is benefiting from these efforts.
Abaco is on a technological wave, riding fast and high into the future.
Stephanie Humblestone, The Nassau Guardian
