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by pltm
(PLTM) - A chart illustrating a comparative analysis of internet speeds and costing between the British Virgin Islands and other countries in the region has brought about even more disappointment among residents of the Territory.
The illustration, which is made available by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Pulse, provides statistics for a total of 18 Caribbean countries, showing the lowest and highest advertised download speeds and monthly costing, in US currency, available in each country by various providers.
The company has been tracking fixed Internet broadband speeds and prices across the Caribbean every year since 2011.
According to the chart, the British Virgin Islands has the 12th lowest advertised download speed among the list of countries assessed, and the highest corresponding monthly rate with a price of $99.00 for 4 megabytes per second (Mps).
ICT Pulse noted that this rate that stands as of May 2016, was due to an analysis of Flow and CCT in the BVI.
The other countries with the lowest advertised download speeds are Anguilla, Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines with 2 Mps; Antigua and Barbuda, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago with 1 Mps; and Aruba, Guyana and Belize with 256 Kilobytes per second. These countries have a corresponding monthly rate ranging between $12.52 and $60.98.
As for the other countries with a higher range of lowest advertised download speeds, ranging from 6 Mps to 8 Mps, their monthly price ranges from $29.99 to $69, which is still significantly lower than that of the BVI.
As it pertains to the highest download speeds advertised, the BVI tied with 2 other countries for the 5th least highest download speed in the region with 48 Mps, but stands with the 4th highest monthly rate of $228.85.
Barbados boasts of the highest download speed with 1 gigabyte and a monthly price $297.50. A gigabyte is 1000 times larger than a megabyte, which is 1 million bytes.
Residents of the BVI took to social media to express their disgust with the exaggerated prices in the BVI and the awful Internet service.
“Wow, we are not doing good," said one resident. “Talk about highway robbery in the BVI,” said another.
Persons went as far as to suggest moving to other countries where the Internet speed is relatively higher and the price is significantly lower.
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