Speedy Internet has come to T&T --$79 for Unlimited ADSL

[BW]

Hey y'all, back again in this thing! New forum, new thread, new information!

First we start off with information Hot off the Presses!

TSTT Setting new benchmark for Broadband in T&T (http://tstt.net.tt/about/news_article.cfm?id=348) (TSTT Press release, dated October 1st, 2007)

Key points:
Broadband unlimited access starts at $79 (promotional price) in newly upgraded areas.
Faster speed will be rolled out in a phased basis. West, San Juan and Deigo Martin exchanges will be first to get new speeds.
Full package list & coverage areas below the press release.



Trinidad - On October 1st, TSTT entered the final phase of its multi-million dollar broadband infrastructure upgrade that will see the company ramp up its customer broadband capacity to over 100,000 ports within a 4-month period. The project will ultimately deliver broadband access speeds of up to 10Mbps and reach every Exchange in Trinidad and Tobago. Trevor Deane TSTT’s Executive Vice President Broadband Services says that with the upgrade, TSTT will be able to extend the distance limitations that were a feature of its current High-Speed Internet offering. “We have invested in ‘future proof’ technologies that are versatile enough to support current and emerging technologies. Modernising our infrastructure and completing our Metro Ethernet fibre distribution network will mean the sky is the limit for business and residential users.”

Deane says the upgrade has enabled TSTT to quickly reach critical mass and customers will soon see a value proposition that will be hard to resist. “The final numbers are still being crunched but we are going after an extremely competitive price point with rates for unlimited monthly broadband access starting as low as $79 a month! This is Broadband redefined.”

Deane says TSTT is very excited about these developments. “Broadband access is the single most important growth area in the communications industry because of the transformative power it has in business and social spheres.” He explains that TSTT is laying the ground work for customers to use broadband access for entertainment, research and education, communication, buying and selling, accessing Government services, health care and much more.

Deane is confident that TSTT’s macro broadband initiative will single-handedly give Trinidad and Tobago a quantum leap forward. “While we have placed a lot of emphasis on the wired network, we are simultaneously developing our wireless broadband coverage so there will be virtually universal affordable broadband access throughout Trinidad and Tobago, a feat that few anywhere else in the region can boast about.”

The service will be rolled out in three phases. Customers serviced off the West, San Juan and Diego Martin exchanges will be included in the first phase, while the second phase inclusive of four more exchanges is due to begin by mid November.

The new service will be branded under the name "BLINK Broadband".

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v55/PikachuMan/BlinkLogo.jpg

Full package rates are as follows:

256k down /64k up -- $79 (Promotional Price)
512k down /128k up -- $149
1 M down /256k up --$229
2M down /512k up --$349
Up to 10M down /768k up -- $699

*All prices are VAT inclusive
*$79 is a promotional price
*Monthly contracts offered in addition to longer term options. [Updated 05/11/07]

Coverage areas for Phase 1 can be found at http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/CoverageAreas.html
Update: Phase 2 areas are now listed at the site above.

Further details can be found at Blinkbroadband.tt (http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/)

---
Well, enough about TSTT. Let's have a look at the new competitor to the market, Flow. Digital-cable ready areas have access to Flow's Cable internet solution, which boasts some very attractive speeds and prices. Full rates (effective November 2007) are posted below.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v55/PikachuMan/broadband_pack.gif

Update: Map of digital-ready areas as of 23/12/2007 is available here (http://www.flowtrinidad.com/general_areas/uploaded_files/images/BroadbandMAP33x7.jpg) (mirror (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v55/PikachuMan/BroadbandMAP33x7.jpg))

Note, however, that in with cable modems, the bandwidth is shared by everyone in your neighborhood. This means that at peak times, expect your speed to decrease.

---
For further reading, you can check out the following articles in the Guardian.

Broadband Battle Begins (http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-09-20/bussguardian1.html) (Business Guardian, 20/09/2007)

From Flow:

Come November, Flow expects to have access to its Arcos network which will allow the company greater capacity and competitiveness.

“We’ve kept things quiet by design. We’re the small fish. We wanted to keep things quiet and build our customer base.

“We don’t want to say too much of what will be coming. What we will say is that what the population is seeing today is not true broadband,”said Yaw Ching, “and when we turn up that network in November, you will see a marked change in the packages that we offer."

TSTT's response:


“It’s a holistic look. We’ve looked at all the areas and increased all the capacity. We’ve made changes and added redundancy. We’ve done a major change in the core of our network allowing us to handle tremendous amounts of data in an efficient way,” he said.

He highlighted one of the technologies the company would be incorporating—the Metro Ethernet, which will allow businesses to get higher and quicker speeds.

“This DSL that comes to your home comes straight from us and is shared with nobody. Other technologies share the bandwidth in that region, so if you have an area where you have a lot of people using it, they actually degrade the performance so you find the speed going down from 6 mbps to 2 mpbs,” he said.

“One of the great things about this new technology is that it drastically lowers the cost to serve which I am sure our customers will be happy with. We are going to be very competitive against anything that Flow brings,” he said.

You may also see this earlier article about Flow's ARCOS connection, Bringing Broadband into Flow (http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-07-17/bitdepth.html) (Bit-depth, Guardian, 17/06/07)

For even more information and the latest rumors, you can also check out another popular local forum, tsttproblems.com (http://tsttproblems.com/index.php?s=152a9b994ada279b200fb27a627a4852&showforum=5).

Have fun y'all. The broadband WAR has only just begun :)

[Sirius]

I have heard that the existing package for $345 will now be a 2Mbps package, while a more pricey package for around $700 a month will offer 10Mbps.

That said, I hear that existing customers on the 256k DSL will have their rates dropped to $75 per month, rather than their speeds increased to 2Mbps. My understanding is if any existing customers wish to keep paying the current rates and obtain a speed boost to 2Mbps rather than a price drop to $75 per month they need to call TSTT and request such.

Can anyone verify this? I will be giving TSTT a call in the morning and see what information I can get in that regard.

In either case, this is good news. I will definately get my speed boosted up to 2Mbps. I'm even quite tempted to shell out the extra cash for that 10Mbps line if the pricing I have heard is accurate.

[BW]

Anyone have info on this particular site, blinkbroadband.tt ? It doesn't work for non-TSTT connections, but apparently it's some sort of countdown. (Which will end at 11am Tuesday)

[Solachica]

Ytday I saw the blink ads on tv....it was like 'what the Blink'
Was wondering wht it was abt. :?
But in my area fones lines have been cut since February and we have no cable with Flow here so where does tht leave me? Wht are my options? :roll:

[Sirius]

http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/

TSTT has released the packages.

256k: $79
512k: $149
1MB: $229
2MB: $349
Up to 10MB: $699

[JediKnight]

Cool, that 1 mb looks interesting. Look what a little competition does. :D

[Solachica]

Ok so for the TSTT blink packages. Whts its abt?
Do I need a fone line or not? Thts my main concern since I've had no fone since Feb with the stolen fone lines.

[JediKnight]

If blink is just a re-branding, yes, you will need a phone line, unless the blink packages include TSTT wireless. I am not sure how wide the wireless coverage is though. I know someone that has it, but she only operates in POS and environs. She has not checked it out in other parts of T&T.

[Sirius]

This is ADSL service, so it is reliant on a phone line.

See if you fall into any of the areas on the following page and get TSTT to fix your phone line asap.

http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/CoverageAreas.html

[Solachica]

Since February the lines have been cut and they seem to really have no intensions of fixing it. Last time they fixed it the same evening it was fixed the bandits cut it tht same night.
There are miles of lines to be fixed and I've heard tht they said they wud not fix lines becos as soon as they fix it's stolen and they looking at underground option..
:roll:

[lexbarker]

Cool, that 1 mb looks interesting. Look what a little competition does. :D
It is only 50 hours a month.

[BW]

Cool, that 1 mb looks interesting. Look what a little competition does. :D
It is only 50 hours a month.

All TSTT packages are unlimited.

[Sirius]

Cool, that 1 mb looks interesting. Look what a little competition does. :D
It is only 50 hours a month.

Flow's packages are limited hours (except for the higher end ones). TSTT's are all unlimited.

[Mr Majik]

I hope those prices do come down. I pay about CAN$45 (approx TT$280)/month for my cable connection.
I just did a speed test and it came in at 1.2MB Upload and 12.3MB download. I just did a second test and got 1.2 Up and 10.1 Down.
I advise most not to waste money on the fastest package, since most of that speed will be wasted anyhow. Regardless of your D/L speed you'll be hard-pressed to find a feeding source that can upload as fast as you can download. When I first got cable my uploads were more in the 700-800 kb range and downloads were between 1.5 and 2 mb. With all the increase in speed I haven't really noticed much difference. In fact, the 512kb DSL would be more than enough for most users (as long as TSTT's phone system is reliable).

As for speed difference (with cable) when others on the grid are online, believe me it's negligible.I've done speed tests at all hous of the day and night and the variation is minimal. Consider, with that, that I live on a block that has 30-40 cable internet users, according to an install guy who was in the area a few weeks back.

[Sirius]

Unfortunately I don't think we can expect to see much in the way of price drops at this point. We might get some higher speeds around November when Flow launches on the new ARCOS network and TSTT responds...but it probably won't be as fast or as cheap as the US or Canada. Our market is too small, and our incoming bandwidth to the country is more limited than abroad.

[jamez]

Fantastic range of packages from Blink... Flow can do alot better and remove those limited packages
The pricing may be much closer than it appears
Wonder if Blink rates are VAT inclusive?

if not then the comparable 2mb unlimited Package from Flow @ $390.99 vs Blink @ $401.35
with annual payment contract/discounts Blink may be a few $$ cheaper even after VAT

if VAT is included VDSL all de way


as soon as one of them reach in de bush where I can use it!! sigh!

[BW]

Just an update.

Blinkbroadband.tt now works for non-TSTT users.

The $79 figure is VAT inclusive, but it is PROMOTIONAL PRICING (so it will likely increase later down the line).

Edit: Also, minimum contract length is 1 year. There is no month-to-month option for Blink service.

--
Guess no blinking service for me. First, they don't even have it available in my area, and now they want to lock me in for a whole year? Meh, I'll wait on Flow (lord knows when they will get down south).

Edit2: As of November 5th, 2007, Month-to-month contracts are now available. Guess I'll be going blink after all ;)

[guyguy]

I hope those prices do come down. I pay about CAN$45 (approx TT$280)/month for my cable connection.
I just did a speed test and it came in at 1.2MB Upload and 12.3MB download. I just did a second test and got 1.2 Up and 10.1 Down.
I advise most not to waste money on the fastest package, since most of that speed will be wasted anyhow. Regardless of your D/L speed you'll be hard-pressed to find a feeding source that can upload as fast as you can download. When I first got cable my uploads were more in the 700-800 kb range and downloads were between 1.5 and 2 mb. With all the increase in speed I haven't really noticed much difference. In fact, the 512kb DSL would be more than enough for most users (as long as TSTT's phone system is reliable).

As for speed difference (with cable) when others on the grid are online, believe me it's negligible.I've done speed tests at all hous of the day and night and the variation is minimal. Consider, with that, that I live on a block that has 30-40 cable internet users, according to an install guy who was in the area a few weeks back.
Wow! You get 10 -12 megabytes up and 1.2 - 10.1 down? For $45 CDN/month? That's incredible!

Do me a favour, will you? Go to this site' http://www.speedtest.net/ and run some speed test to various countries of the world. You can just click on the speedtest results I posted and it will take you directly to the server. When each test is done click on the "Copy" in the bar that says "Forum Link and post it here. I'd like to see those speedtest results myself and send them off to my local ISP.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/189822939.png (http://www.speedtest.net) http://www.speedtest.net/result/189823375.png (http://www.speedtest.net) http://www.speedtest.net/result/189824112.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

As you can see, I can't get anywhere close to your results and I pay even more for cable. Please post your results here and the link of the speedtest server that you use.
Thanks

[Mr Majik]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/189937504.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
http://www.speedtest.net/result/189938799.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
http://www.speedtest.net/result/189939257.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Hey Guy. Here's the results. Immediately after I did another test from my ISP's website and got this: http://www.dslreports.com/im/37823684/44625.png

When I got the faster speeds it was at a less busy time. If I remember, tonight I will try after midnight. Regardless, even the slowest of these speeds is more than acceptable for most folks, would you agree?

[Mr Majik]

Ok Guy. Here's that result from my ISP test, plus another one (I had to forgotten how to change bmp to jpg, but just remembered).

This link should take you to their test page:
http://www.mountaincable.net/index.php?id=3,114,0,0,1,0

[guyguy]

I agree. That's pretty fast. But what confused me was that you stated that you were getting MegaBytes/sec not kiloBits/sec. I was blown away with those numbers. You're actually getting the following speeds;

=5395 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
=674.375 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
=5.395 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
=0.674 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]


Check this link to convert your speeds from kilobits to megabytes.
http://www.mediaroad.com/products/speed ... t_convert/ (http://www.mediaroad.com/products/speedcheck/free_tools/unit_convert/)

Thanks.

[BW]

They've announced the Phase 2 coverage areas. They should be hitting South soon. :D

http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/areas.jpg

w00t. The only sour point is the 1-year contract deal.

They also have the modem settings needed for Speedstream/Netopia and Paradyne routers for ADSL2+

[Mr Majik]

Guy...I thought the conversion was a simple x/1000. If you see the numbers in my last post the upload speeds are better than 1200kbps. So I wrote it as 1.2 MB. From the page you posted I guess I should have written it as 1.2mbps. When I did the first tests the download speeds were better than 12,000 and 10,100 kbs, at least as far as the results from my ISP's speed test link.
Now, comparing the 2 speed tests, it seems the one linked from my ISP returns faster speeds than the link you posted. I'm curious why.
As for price, I don't know your market at all, but as far as I can remember (mid 1970s) we in Southern Ontario have always been a few years ahead in terms of access and pricing to the NYC/NJ area, where I spent a great deal of my childhood and youth. For instance, My family first got cable tv in 1970, with the old brown, wired box with a row of buttons for each channel. No one in my rather large family in Brooklyn had cable at all back then. The first ones to get cable got it in 1975, soon after moving to NJ. They had the same brown box we had. Thing is, by that time those brown boxes were long passe in Toronto and environs. Their cable service also had far fewer free channels. In fact, it was there that I first heard of subscription channels (ie: HBO, Showtime etc...).
Even now, although there are quite a few subscription channels available here, I think you need to be a TV, sports or movie junkie to buy these packages. I can scan from channels 2-71 on my dial and there is something on every channel! BTW...I just checked my plan, and it's actually only $41 for internet because I have it bundled with cable. I also realized that there are 2 cheaper tv plans with less channels, that I'd totally forgotten about.

Here's the link to my cable/ISProvider. Id like to see how the pricing compares to your area.
http://www.mountaincable.net/

Cheers!

[Somebody007]

Forgive me people as I am about to ask a dumb question....Is Blinkbroadband TSTT or is this a totally new company and has no connection with TSTT? If TSTT changed their rates and speeds, why is it they call it Blink Boradband and operating as though it is something totally separate from TSTT......

[BW]

Forgive me people as I am about to ask a dumb question....Is Blinkbroadband TSTT or is this a totally new company and has no connection with TSTT? If TSTT changed their rates and speeds, why is it they call it Blink Boradband and operating as though it is something totally separate from TSTT......

Pretty sure it's TSTT. They aren't just changing the speed and rates, Blinkbroadband uses a different set of technologies (Metro Ethernet, ADSL2+, FTTP) than the old TSTT HSIA service. They require different modem settings (http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/ModemSettings.html), have different prices and will be rolled out at different times (BB is limited to certain areas, at the moment). The change is not completely transparent to the user, and so a different branding is necessary.

Though, on a more practical level:

Right now, certain areas are paying $79 for 256k dsl, while others are paying $460 for the same speed.

If they were to do that under the same branding, people would be rioting in the streets.

[lexbarker]

I agree. That's pretty fast. But what confused me was that you stated that you were getting MegaBytes/sec not kiloBits/sec. I was blown away with those numbers. You're actually getting the following speeds;

=5395 Kbps [Kilobit-per-second]
=674.375 KB/sec [Kilobyte-per-second]
=5.395 Mbps [Megabit-per-second]
=0.674 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second]


Check this link to convert your speeds from kilobits to megabytes.
http://www.mediaroad.com/products/speed ... t_convert/ (http://www.mediaroad.com/products/speedcheck/free_tools/unit_convert/)

Thanks.
Quick guide:

8 Bits = 1 character unit = 1 byte (Combination of Hi and Lo bits to give a specific character or code)
So, 5.395 Mega (Million) Bits = 674.375 Kilo (Thousand) Bytes.
Bits is represented with a small "b" while Bytes is a Capital "B".

[Somebody007]

ah hear T&TEC want to enter into the telecommunications market and bringing out broadband in the next couple of years as well. Look ting, jess now TSTT goin to buss.

[BW]

^^Indeed. Throw in Greendot and some other wireless providers, and the monopoly will be a shredded to pieces.

Some quick news about the recent spectrum auction.
http://www.newsday.co.tt/business/0,65611.html


“Persons nationwide, probably in the next 12 months will benefit from a more affordable broadband service,” he said. Potential service providers were notified in January 2007 of the auction for spectrum, he said, adding that TATT prepared and published a spectrum plan which identified radio frequency blocks allocated for providing BWA services in the named bands.

Telestar Cable System Limited won all 12 blocks in the 12GHz band at TT$650,000 per block per annum. The annual licence fee for the company will be $7.8 million per annum in total. Seecheran said the company may use this wider band to accommodate wireless cable television service. Green Dot Limited won three blocks in the Lower 700MHz band at TT$177,000 per block per annum. The annual licence fee therefore is TT$531,000 per annum in total.

Green Dot representative Ketan Patel said the spectrum will be used for wireless internet service but also to increase penetration in rural areas. He said in the next 12-24 months advanced technology used currently in the US, such as mobile television and mobile internet service will be made available locally.

[sylvestter]

so i phoned blink to find out how my current smartchoice-dsl bill will be affected. they are not equipped to answer questions of that nature on the phone, but they directed me to fill-out a form on the website after a which a rep will phone me in 6-8 weeks.

steups.

typical crap from tstt.

[Sumana]

yeah 5-8 weeks to get it if you're in phase 1 :roll:

[BW]

Another article about the recent spectrum auction.

High Speed Internet for rural T&T (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161217012) (Trinidad Express 15/10/07)


While Green Dot is already an authorised wireless Internet provider, one of the company's directors, Ajmal Nazir, told the Express the three blocks of 700 MHz frequency they acquired at the auction will allow them to provide the service to customers at all areas of the country.

"This frequency can travel through trees and along the coasts and will allow internet services to reach a whole new group of customers who were before too marginalised to access wireless High-speed net," Nazir said last Friday.

I just hope they redesign their website. It's strange they won't list their packages on their website.

[sylvestter]

apparently greendot applied for an over-the-air tv licence last week. like they want to expand in a big way...

[BW]

A fresh new article about BlinkBroadbad, courtesy of the writer of Bitdepth. Eyes Wide Shut (http://www.lyndersaydigital.com/brain/files/blink.html) (Lyndersaydigital.com, 14/10/07)


According to Joseph Herde, Head of Marketing & Sales, TSTT Broadband Group, "Blink Broadband represents a completely new level of product & service for Broadband, we did not want to draw any association to our previous High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) product. We were aware of the issues associated with that product and our aim was to use lessons learned to develop a new product and redefine Broadband service."

"For what it is worth, this is not open marketing hype. We have deployed everything from future-proof state-of-the-art IP core networks featuring ADSL 2+ technology, along with a new technical help desk which operates 24/7 (due in six weeks time). There will also be a suite of value added products to accompany our broadband service, to allow customers to enjoy a unique online experience, rather than just a bandwidth pipe."

Aye, so it seems they've got more tricks up their sleeve. Still, the article points out lots of the concerns about the service. Good read.

[Ali]

so anyone here tried out the blink internet
is it as b***king fast as they claim?

[discipuli]

AT the end of the day Flow should be the better bet .. yes your bandwidth is shared with people in your immediate area, but its an optic fiber line... you'd need to send GIGABITS through it to start to reach its limits . IF everyone in your neighbourhood has flow , it won't affect the speed .

Right now i'm on TSTT DSL but i have to use a special setting through CaribLink's DNS server , if i use the default TSTT one pages barely load... this kind of crappy service will probably continue , at lower price points...

For gamers Flow's pings are better and will be more consistent , TSTT's right now goes down to 80ms at night , to 200ms in the day..

Flow users can't load the blink site , and are experiencing bandwidth issues because right now TSTT is screwing up the interconnect between Flow and TSTT , and refuses to allow Flow to fix it.. just like they did with Digicel.. last ditch attempt to woo customers.

Once ARCOS is hooked up properly i predict we'd see speeds close to what Jamaica has , 3-4mbit for 360 tt , 8mbit for 600 .

Flows network will be more future proof than TSTT's , ADSL2 uses copper and is affected by distance , so much that the average person will probably never be able to get more than a 5mbit connection , the maximum upload is also around 2mbit .

Flow uses optic fibre : no distance limit and it will scale to provide 100mbit connections and more .

Rumour mill has it that Flow is offering a 20mbit package from next month... let the battle begin .

[BW]

AT the end of the day Flow should be the better bet .. yes your bandwidth is shared with people in your immediate area, but its an optic fiber line... you'd need to send GIGABITS through it to start to reach its limits . IF everyone in your neighbourhood has flow , it won't affect the speed .

Right now i'm on TSTT DSL but i have to use a special setting through CaribLink's DNS server , if i use the default TSTT one pages barely load... this kind of crappy service will probably continue , at lower price points...

For gamers Flow's pings are better and will be more consistent , TSTT's right now goes down to 80ms at night , to 200ms in the day..

Flow users can't load the blink site , and are experiencing bandwidth issues because right now TSTT is screwing up the interconnect between Flow and TSTT , and refuses to allow Flow to fix it.. just like they did with Digicel.. last ditch attempt to woo customers.

Once ARCOS is hooked up properly i predict we'd see speeds close to what Jamaica has , 3-4mbit for 360 tt , 8mbit for 600 .

Flows network will be more future proof than TSTT's , ADSL2 uses copper and is affected by distance , so much that the average person will probably never be able to get more than a 5mbit connection , the maximum upload is also around 2mbit .

Flow uses optic fibre : no distance limit and it will scale to provide 100mbit connections and more .

Rumour mill has it that Flow is offering a 20mbit package from next month... let the battle begin .

Eh, lots of information there chief. Congrats on your first post here, but I think I've seen that username before ;)

Couple of things:

---
1) ADSL2+ (what TSTT is using) is capable of giving you wayyy more than 5Mb/s downstream. The theoretical maximum is at 24Mbits/s downstream, and I've personally seen my ADSL2+ connection (provided by Cable and Wireless Grenada) sync at over 20Megabits/s.

The upstream, however, is severely handicapped. The maximum theoretical is 1Mb/s, and I've never seen it over 900Kb/s in real world usage.

TSTT can get around this by using port bonding, or by giving a fiber connection to the premises. They are pushing fiber very deep into the network, and yes, they do have that capability.

---
2) Why are you blaming TSTT for Flow's problems? That's pure speculation, and I'd be more inclined to blame Flow's rapid over-expansion than any sort of malicious action by TSTT. Remember what was happening when Flow started giving problems: 1. They upped the 4Mb package to 6Mb, 2. They expanded into some highly populated areas (POS), 3. They revamped business packages and added tons more Business connections in POS and environs. In those few weeks, they placed a hell of a lot more demands on their bandwidth, and they ran short of bandwidth.

Had ARCOS come online when they predicted (October), we wouldn't be having this discussion. They were/are late getting their supply side together, but still kept upping the demands. It was bound to catch up with them. That's it. No need for conspiracy theories.

---
3) Flow doesn't have fiber optic connections coming to your house. The connection going to your home is still copper, and fiber optic is only used further up the line. TSTT's solution, while less capable, can be described in the same way (copper to the home, and fiber in the rest of the network).

---
4) Well, this one I'll agree with. TSTT's DNS servers are damn unreliable. I agree 100%, and I advise everyone get some sort of backup, since it's not uncommon to have outages. I realize some of the users here aren't as familiar with the technical aspect, so please, read on.

------
For those not in the know:

A Domain Name Server (DNS) is a device whose only job is to translate webpage addresses (for example, http://www.google.com), to a number (or an 'IP Address', such as 64.233.167.99). Think of this number as being sort of the internet version of a street address. Your computer needs to have that number before it can start downloading or uploading things to that website.

So, for example. assuming everything is working:

If I type in www.google.com
--> DNS server resolves that to 64.233.167.99
--> My computer connects to that website.

However, it's not uncommon for TSTT's DNS server to break. So, for example,

If I type in www.google.com
--> TSTT DNS server is not working
--> The web browser throws up a nifty "Server cannot be found" message.

Even though my DSL connection is fully connected, without a working DNS server, no new webpages can load. Thank goodness, however, there are alternative DNS servers you can use. You are not stuck using TSTT's servers. Changing them will greatly improve the service reliablility.

OpenDNS.com (http://www.openDNS.com) is a pretty, well designed page with lots of pictures to help you change your default DNS servers. They'll give you some servers to put in, but I recommend if you get the address of a local or regional server, you use that instead.

Welcome :D

[scrunter]

rightn now I am one who is paying $320 plus for 256 because they are not in my area as yet but ah hoping they come soon .You can sign up online for blink.

[BW]

Well, a wee bit before schedule, but it seems flow has upgraded once more.



Effective November, Flow’s prices are:

n A 20 hour limited package with speed at 2mbps for $69.99

n U click unlimited one package with speed up to 2 mbps for $189.99

n U click unlimited two package with speed up to 6 mbps for $349.99

n U click unlimited three package with speed up to 15 mbps for $689.99

http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007 ... ness3.html (http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-10-30/business3.html)

[skl]

Well, a wee bit before schedule, but it seems flow has upgraded once more.



Effective November, Flow’s prices are:

n A 20 hour limited package with speed at 2mbps for $69.99

n U click unlimited one package with speed up to 2 mbps for $189.99

n U click unlimited two package with speed up to 6 mbps for $349.99

n U click unlimited three package with speed up to 15 mbps for $689.99

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business3.html

hmmm..why the unlimiteds are "up to". Will you recive less somethimes ?

[discipuli]

most websites won't give you more than 4mbits of bandwidth to download with... so unless you real greedy ,you never going to use up 15mbits..


bandwidth on residential connections isn't always reliable : eg. an ISP might hook up 300 people at 1mbit and have only 100mbits of bandwidth for them all... It works out great as there are probably never more than 30 people downloading at the same time , using up the whole 1mbit... but occasionally the bandwidth may strain ...

[Ali]

so who here has used flow and blink?????

which is better??

[Somebody007]

The UK IP providers are offering speeds of 24mbps download for customers at a price of 40 pounds per month. They are therefore still ahead of us in terms of speeds.

[BW]

The UK IP providers are offering speeds of 24mbps download for customers at a price of 40 pounds per month. They are therefore still ahead of us in terms of speeds.

Well, bear in mind that UK providers also have a hard cap on the amount of data transferred per month (i.e., you are limited to a certain number of gigabytes transferred per month, based on which package you select). And, from what I've heard, the cap is usually ridiculous low even on the higher end packages. Sure you've got a fast connection at a cheap price, but you are pretty limited in how much you can actually use it.

Now, this contrasts with the system in the states and over here as well, where there is no hard-cap. You are free to max out your connection every minute of every day if you so desire. There are some US ISPs who are adding "fair use" clauses in their contracts, but even then, they only notice if you are going way, way over what is normal (I've heard Comcast will allow you somewhere around 250GBs a month before they send you an email).

Now, I don't expect us to have the same kinds of infrastructure as the UK (that should go without saying), but I'd honestly prefer one of our 6Mbps lines, to some gimped hard-capped 24Mbps line. As discipuli pointed out, most websites aren't going to give you anywhere near that 24Mbps in practical usage. Added to that, for someone who really needs all that bandwidth (for doing things like downloading videos, XBL or game demos), that 30 or 40GB cap that UK ISPs offer, quickly begins to look really, really small.

ps, why did you bring up UK isps in the first place? I know there are better connections out there (Japan and Korea have 100Mb/s lines as standard), but that doesn't really help us in our small island, now does it?

--
edit: Just for the sake of completeness, the broadband war has again taken the front page in the Business Guardian. No new information, but still interesting. Link below.

Revolutionizing Caribbean Broadband (http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-11-01/bussguardian1.html) (Business Guardian 01/11/07)

[Somebody007]

The UK IP providers are offering speeds of 24mbps download for customers at a price of 40 pounds per month. They are therefore still ahead of us in terms of speeds.

Well, bear in mind that UK providers also have a hard cap on the amount of data transferred per month (i.e., you are limited to a certain number of gigabytes transferred per month, based on which package you select). And, from what I've heard, the cap is usually ridiculous low even on the higher end packages. Sure you've got a fast connection at a cheap price, but you are pretty limited in how much you can actually use it.

Now, this contrasts with the system in the states and over here as well, where there is no hard-cap. You are free to max out your connection every minute of every day if you so desire. There are some US ISPs who are adding "fair use" clauses in their contracts, but even then, they only notice if you are going way, way over what is normal (I've heard Comcast will allow you somewhere around 250GBs a month before they send you an email).

Now, I don't expect us to have the same kinds of infrastructure as the UK (that should go without saying), but I'd honestly prefer one of our 6Mbps lines, to some gimped hard-capped 24Mbps line. As discipuli pointed out, most websites aren't going to give you anywhere near that 24Mbps in practical usage. Added to that, for someone who really needs all that bandwidth (for doing things like downloading videos, XBL or game demos), that 30 or 40GB cap that UK ISPs offer, quickly begins to look really, really small.

ps, why did you bring up UK isps in the first place? I know there are better connections out there (Japan and Korea have 100Mb/s lines as standard), but that doesn't really help us in our small island, now does it?

--
edit: Just for the sake of completeness, the broadband war has again taken the front page in the Business Guardian. No new information, but still interesting. Link below.

Revolutionizing Caribbean Broadband (http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-11-01/bussguardian1.html) (Business Guardian 01/11/07)


I was just comparing the speeds being offered in T&T and abroad....(UK especially).

[discipuli]

I'd still say we have arrived in terms of broadband speed...

Whats more important.. is service, which TSTT is still sucking at , and flow is yet to prove itself .


A 2mbit connection is all the average person will ever need , DVD quality video is only 1mbit , so you can stream TV shows all you like .

[BW]

Quick note:

The blink online application form has been updated. You may now select "monthly contract". ie, you don't have to select a yearly contract if you don't want to. :)

Upload speeds have also been printed on the form. No changes made to packages.

[Huma]

I was hoping they'd change a bit to compete with Flow.

[jpf]

but with monthly u will end up having to pay the activation fee & the cost of the modem, not so with Flow, at least the mth of Nov.

hey wait a minute.... everyone look at the bottom of the FAQ's page on blink site...

How it affects billing? pro-rated charges?
It is pro-rated based on when you sign-up during the month.

if they letting people sign up b4 their area is blink ready shouldnt this mean that your rates are adjusted when u sign up even though your area is not blink ready? someone should bring this to TSTT's attention, & TATT too as a matter of fact! in other words u should be paying $79 for the 256k ur currently getting, & dialup users too

[Somebody007]

What will happen to dial up internet? Isn't that phasing out to give way to DSL?

[JediKnight]

I am now on Blink. Connecting currently at 1.3mbs. It is pretty fast, at least I am happy with it. No problems so far (after 1 week). Pretty reliable. Never failed to connect (knock on wood). Using over a wireless network. Quite satisfied. Used FLOW at a friend's. Pretty fast as well, he indiacted that they are reliable, and most importantly, he got the service within 2 days of paying.

[BW]

Good to hear that! Could I ask if you are in a Phase 2 area though? It's nice to see the Blink's rollout going so quickly.

---------
Also, this bit isn't directly relevant, but for anyone interested. I've just came across yet another provider landing cables in Trinidad.

http://www.windwardtelecom.net/about/default.asp

Windward Telecom Limited on February 16, 2007 received a concession from the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago to provide international telecommunications services to and from the republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Expansion to Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is planned for the second half of 2007.

Using a combination of existing and newly-constructed telecommunications fibres which will land in Trinidad, Windward Telecom will eliminate the international bottleneck. Competition will result in:

* Improved quality of service as a consequence of physically diverse traffic routes through the Americas 2 fibre, satellite and two new fibres being constructed into Chaguaramas
* Lower pricing as a consequence of lower cost structures and efficient use of IP transmission modes
* Faster deployment of emerging technologies from a multi-service softswitch platform

Services will be initiated during the second quarter of 2007.

I'm guessing we're already seeing this being used. So far, I've accounted for an impressive total of 4 new cables being landed in Trinidad during 2007. One from Colombus Communications (ARCOS), another from Southern Caribbean Fiber, and now these. We've come far in a year, yes? :)

edit: doh, just realized they are a wholesale provider (they may just be re-selling bandwidth from other providers, and not have their own cable). Still, at least this is good news for smaller ISPs, like Greendot and Caribel, and possibly VOIP providers (such as Carib-Link).

[skl]

well somethings up.....

this is my normal TSTT 128k (not Blink) connection now.


http://www.speedtest.net/result/206870430.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

2 days ago I noticed my torrent connection which usually is 20-30 k jump to 50-60 k

[Sirius]

Sure you haven't been upgraded to Blink? The upgrade is automatic to the 1Mb connection, which is what it looks like you're getting right now.

Just on the side, the TSTT HSIA package was upped to 256k a long time ago...128 has not been offered by TSTT in quite some time. 20-30k download speed means you were on 256...128 would only give about 16k max.

[BW]

^^ didn't they keep a 64k and 128k business package?

[Sirius]

^^ didn't they keep a 64k and 128k business package?

Not that I'm aware of. That is some serious salt for companies if they did though eh. My understanding is the business packages were 256, 512, 768, 1Mb and 1.5Mb.

[BW]

Ah, this is funny...

http://www.newsday.co.tt/business/0,68885.html


CWU wants TSTT answers

Thursday, November 29 2007

THE COMMUNICATION Workers’ Union is calling on Government, for a second time, to clarify whether it has given approval for a management contract to be granted to Cable and Wireless plc to preside over the re-organisation of TSTT.

CWU said it has heard that Cable and Wireless “is about to get a management contract to manage TSTT for some defined period.”

Cable and Wireless has a 49 percent stake in TSTT, while Government holds the majority share, with 51 percent.

CWU says that such a move to put TSTT in the hands of Cable and Wireless, “will be dangerous to the national patrimony and the health and welfare of the employees of TSTT and the rest of the society.”

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v55/PikachuMan/roflmao.gif

Words cannot fully describe how much I loathe the CWU. For years, we, the people of Trinidad and Tobago, have been forced to pay the "TSTT tax" and support this bunch of goons. In turn, they give us a couldn't-care-less attitude, incompetent technical support, and an completely rubbish level of service. Those bastards have kept us in the stone ages and have held back the development of every.single.citizen. of this country.

And now they want to tell us about their "national patrimony”? EH EH. Tell me, why the hell should I keep spending my hard earned money to support the redundant positions, grossly overpaid salaries and incompetent staff you have kept in place? Listen up, CWU. The time for that done. Is either you adjust (swallow the pill CW is giving you, while you have a chance), or prepare to DIE at the hands of Flow and Greendot. Take all yuh dotish ole talk about "national patrimony" to your grave. The people of T&T won't put up with your BS anymore.

[BW]

New BitDepth article

http://www.lyndersaydigital.com/writing ... th607.html (http://www.lyndersaydigital.com/writing/bd07/dec/files/BitDepth607.html)


Those changes, geared to improve the company’s network hardware, include replacing cabling to some homes and the electronic switches that branch connections in communities. TSTT is also replacing longer runs of copper, now vulnerable to theft, with fibre-optic cable or shorter lengths of thinner copper cabling.

By April 2008, TSTT expects to have completed 80 per cent of its implementation of Blink. By the time this column is published, the company should also have announced a price cut on its older Internet service beginning in the month of December.

Well that sounds reasonable. I was hoping to get it by now, but meh.

And he goes on about Flow's service,


Competitor Flow has been equally active, and the company allowed me a three-week trial of their premium 15 megabit service last month. The results of that were surprising.

After three weeks of hard browsing, I’m pretty sure that nobody serves data at 15 megabits, and most fast sites will peak at around 1.4 megabits for a download.

I tested two fast sites, Apple’s download site, served by Akamai and Audible where I buy digital audiobooks and initiated multiple downloads. The servers delivering my data peaked at 1.8 megabits, which brought roughly 500 megabytes worth of files to my desktop in around 20 minutes.

This is going to be your experience regardless of whether you go with Flow or TSTT, and you can read more about why and what you can do about it next week’s BitDepth Christmas day edition before you try to download some festive cheer.

Interesting, but I have so say, he's got his numbers wrong. Most 'fast' sites will give you much more than 1.4 megabits. I've seen some sites that specialize in online video (like DL.TV, or Revision3.com), give speeds at over 8Megabits per second at times, and even during peak hours, they can still saturate my 3Mb/s C&W connection. Most 'average' sites can still give you 1 or 2Mbs/s.

The slow speed he's getting is/was more due to Flow's inability to give the speed they promise. Even after ARCOS-1 came online, they still had some speed problems.

[BW]

Sweet, Flow's "coming soon" list has been updated.

http://www.flowtrinidad.com/general_are ... AP33x7.jpg (http://www.flowtrinidad.com/general_areas/uploaded_files/images/BroadbandMAP33x7.jpg)

They reaching San'do probably before Blink. Totally unexpected, but definitely welcome!! :) :)

[greall]

I've read your posts,Breadwinner and we could use you on some of the other TT telecom forums... 8-)

I've longed for the day when I'd be able to have BB (broadband) Internet access at my home in Moruga and it'll be here by April 2008 at the earliest instant once the copper lines aren't attacked by thieves but I understand that TSTT and the local police are dealing with that.

I could go on and on about TSTT's core problems but I won't.I see that the competition on the local telecoms front has put some fire under them in that we're seeing services here now that the outer world's been utilizing for years now.The intricacies in providing these services here experienced by all of the telecom providers are totally stupendous when they're disclosed.

Back to the topic,the local ICT sector is booming.We've got more providers now than we can count and each is rolling out a service which will appeal to various markets and the customer remains the ultimate decision-maker with respect to who provides him with the services which he wishes to use.

As for me,I face the following choices:

(1) Greendot would suit me fine here in Moruga as there'd be no risk of copper cable theft but their services are currently unavailable in my area.I've been told that they provide most of the BB Internet services for the oil service companies on the southeastern coast (which is a few hours away from where I live).
Some of the reviews which I've gotten from some of their users doesn't put them in a good light but I work in customer service and I know for a fact that the Trini customer can be more than a handful.
(2) Flow won't be anywhere on my side any time soon due to economic feasability and practicality.I'm happy for that because they really need to get their act together in terms of their CONSTANT service downtime especially in the Princes Town area as they're my employer's WAN service provider.
(3)Blink should be here soon but there remains the threat of the copper lines being either stolen by thieves or pulled down by the roadwork contractors in my area.
(4) Digicel's EDGE service is just too damn expensive even though they have wider coverage than TSTT's EVDO.They have their own pricing issue to deal with and I'm hoping that that'll be rectified soon.
(5) TSTT's EVDO's suffering from bad planning in that they launched the service without the needed capacity.They're in the process of frequency re-allocation which should provide for better service when they smooth things out there.I've had the opportunity to use it in the San Juan area last year and it's pretty good but a bit too unstable.
(6) TSTT's GPRS service has gotten better as compared to when I was a mzone subscriber but it's still a bit too slow for my liking.

Until better can be done,I use TSTT unlimited dial-up service at home,initiate my downloads and go about my business as usual.

Just my thoughts

[AirFalcon]

Nice review greall, I didn't even know Digicel's EDGE service was available.

The problem I have with both TSTT and Flow is that their service is absolutely lousy. People at work who are supposed to be in the digital areas with Flow tell me it was months after Flow announced digital service in their area before they were switched. And then in most cases they lost their service a few hours after the technician left. They then were told they have to wait for days while Flow schedules their technician. One guy told me someone finally told him to unplug power to the box and wait a few seconds to plug it back in. This resulted in service being restored in a few minutes.

I am hoping for some other providers to come on board in 2008 so we have some more choices and don't have to put up with the terrible service from both these companies.

[Solachica]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/219588366.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

http://www.speedtest.net/result/221103383.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[Ali]

^wow thats fast :o

i heard T&TEC will soon be offering broadband internet :shock:

can anyone confirm?

[Solachica]

:shock: TTEC? :o

[greall]

They (T&TEC) can offer broadband Internet access by using Power Line Communication (PLC).Follow the Wiki link for a review: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line ... .2C_BPL.29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication#Internet_access_.28broadb and_over_powerlines.2C_BPL.29)

I've seen this in use at a friend's home where she uses her home's existing electrical wiring to run a LAN and some of her home security systems.It looked strange to me and I kept asking her for the network cables... :lol:

[Ali]

Look i find the link:

http://www.newsday.co.tt/businessday/0,70795.html

[Solachica]

:D tht wud be intresting to me since next mth wud make it a year tht we have had no landline :roll:

[AirFalcon]

Very intersting possibility. It would be interesting to see if this competition improves service but I'm not holding my breath.

[Sirius]

The bandwidth possible over BPL is not very high compared to what ADSL2+ and fiber optic cable can deliver. However it does have a much larger penetration as anywhere that has electricity can get BPL. However given cable's penetration and the advent of wireless broadband, T&TEC will have to offer very low cost to be competitive. If I'm not mistaken, a lot of places that once had BPL have since ended the service as other mediums have proven more viable as well as restrictions due to interference with certain radio frequencies.

[greall]

I think that it's a good idea but the issues of interference and market demand may stagnate its implementation here in TT.

[BW]

I think that it's a good idea but the issues of interference and market demand may stagnate its implementation here in TT.

If I remember correctly, broadband-over-powerline has lots of benefits for the electric company itself (it gives them a much better way to monitor their own infrastructure). The real value of BPL might not be entirely dependent on providing internet service to end users, which would mean market-demand plays a lesser role than it would have for cable or dsl rollouts.

As for the messy little interference issue... that may be tolerated by TATT if there's enough potential benefit (in this case, more competition in the telecom industry). Just a thought, but could T&TEC just be using the potential consumer benefits as a feint to lessen regulations?

[TRVC]

As for me,I face the following choices:

(1) Greendot would suit me fine here in Moruga as there'd be no risk of copper cable theft but their services are currently unavailable in my area.


Hello Greall,
Have you asked GreenDot if they can roll out to your area? I know they cannot do so for 1 customer only, but their infrastructure roll-out costs are much lower than anyone else. If you can get even as little as a dozen customers lined up it might be worth their while to set up a transmitter to cover your area.
Let us know if that works out.

[greall]

As for me,I face the following choices:

(1) Greendot would suit me fine here in Moruga as there'd be no risk of copper cable theft but their services are currently unavailable in my area.


Hello Greall,
Have you asked GreenDot if they can roll out to your area? I know they cannot do so for 1 customer only, but their infrastructure roll-out costs are much lower than anyone else. If you can get even as little as a dozen customers lined up it might be worth their while to set up a transmitter to cover your area.
Let us know if that works out.

I called them soon after they got the new licence.I still have to wait until they start using the new frequency and get some repeaters installed in my area.

[BW]

Intaresting.

Flow is now using Google Maps to show the digital-ready and coming soon areas.
http://www.flowtrinidad.com./watch/cont ... 031D6C8818 (http://www.flowtrinidad.com./watch/content.cfm?contentID=3B1AB8E0-FA6F-F959-A9261D031D6C8818)

[BW]

Another Interesting article in today's Business Guardian.

Telecom 2008: Broadband battles & mobile wars continue (http://www.guardian.co.tt/bussguardian7.html)
(Archive link (http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2008-01-17/bussguardian7.html)).


Broadband

Broadband is TATT’s key initiative area. And a war is already on for lower prices between TSTT’s Blink and Flow’s u-click.

The authority has designed a Frequency Allocation Table—which presents all the useable frequency band and the types of services which are likely to be made available with those bands—which was the cornerstone of the spectrum policy.

“The plan, will allow individuals/companies to be authorised to use specified radio spectrum to provide public services such as wireless cable television and broadband/high-speed Internet access or private data services that use WiFi technologies.”

The other bands available are 400 MHz, upper 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz are already in use.

The authority has placed a moratorium on new and existing users on these bands and intends to consult with existing users to determine an equitable allocation of resources for the bands or reclaim some of the radio spectrum in order to authorise new users.

Greendot was awarded the lower 700 MHz band and Telstar the 12 GHz band.

“Providers have to take up the mantle and start providing good service. We expect that there would be more companies like Greendot making service available,” he said.

“What has helped quite a bit is the opening up of the international segment,” he said.

There are three systems in place which have facilitated this:

n Columbus’ Arcos Network

n TSTT’s Americas 1 and II and its Eastern Caribbean Fibre System

n GCN, the Southern Caribbean Fibre System

“Now that we have the capacity, we are now looking to see how the benefits filter down. The rates are already going down because of the broadband wars,” he said.


The article also talks about the coming competition in the cable TV (!), cellular phone and terrestrial television markets.

[BW]

Wow-wee, another intaresting thing.

Speedtest.net now has a T&T native server, provided by Flow Trinidad. O-o

Not very good though. The download seems about right, but the upload/ping are way out there.

(Testing a 3Mb/768k C&W connection from Grenada). Yea, that's a 626ms ping time going across that tiny geographic distance. :shock:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/223134882.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

And the same connection tested with the Miami server (provided by Amnet)...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/223135184.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
http://www.speedtest.net/result/223135383.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[greall]

Another Interesting article in today's Business Guardian.

Telecom 2008: Broadband battles & mobile wars continue (http://www.guardian.co.tt/bussguardian7.html)
(Archive link (http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2008-01-17/bussguardian7.html)).


Broadband

Broadband is TATT’s key initiative area. And a war is already on for lower prices between TSTT’s Blink and Flow’s u-click.

The authority has designed a Frequency Allocation Table—which presents all the useable frequency band and the types of services which are likely to be made available with those bands—which was the cornerstone of the spectrum policy.

“The plan, will allow individuals/companies to be authorised to use specified radio spectrum to provide public services such as wireless cable television and broadband/high-speed Internet access or private data services that use WiFi technologies.”

The other bands available are 400 MHz, upper 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz are already in use.

The authority has placed a moratorium on new and existing users on these bands and intends to consult with existing users to determine an equitable allocation of resources for the bands or reclaim some of the radio spectrum in order to authorise new users.

Greendot was awarded the lower 700 MHz band and Telstar the 12 GHz band.

“Providers have to take up the mantle and start providing good service. We expect that there would be more companies like Greendot making service available,” he said.

“What has helped quite a bit is the opening up of the international segment,” he said.

There are three systems in place which have facilitated this:

n Columbus’ Arcos Network

n TSTT’s Americas 1 and II and its Eastern Caribbean Fibre System

n GCN, the Southern Caribbean Fibre System

“Now that we have the capacity, we are now looking to see how the benefits filter down. The rates are already going down because of the broadband wars,” he said.


The article also talks about the coming competition in the cable TV (!), cellular phone and terrestrial television markets.

Let the battle continue and the WELL-INFORMED customer will make the decision as to which service provider that he wants to use.

Greg

[BW]

Another article, this one in today's Business Express.

Entering the digital age with broadband service (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business_mag?id=161265030)


Ian Serrao, Flow's director of Network Services sat down with the Business Express last week to explain some of the logistics of broadband Internet and some of the system used by Flow to get broadband internet to your home.

"What you can think of broadband is the tunnel that connects your computer to the Internet. In the past, we had dial-up connections. These were very narrow tunnels to the Internet so download speeds were slow, connectivity took some time to get the access to the information that you needed. With the introduction of broadband what we have done is widen that pipe into your home, so to speak. So whereas before it would take you hours to download a file or get access to some piece of information, we have now broadened the highway into you home so access now is very rapid," Serrao said.



He added that are various technologies to deliver broadband to the home and the technology used by Flow in Trinidad and Tobago is not used by any other provider.

"The cable company uses what we call Docsis 2.0 which is a standard and it is delivered over a Hybrid Fibre and Coax plant. So what we have is fibre optic cables that leave our various hub sites and go out into nodes in the field and at the nodes it is broken into a fibre optic connection to a coax connection and that connection is what comes into your house and plugs into your cable modem," Serrao said.


"What is happening with Flow right now is that we had an old cable TV plant, which it inherited when it acquired CCTT. Flow has come in and is actually re-building that entire plant and the major point in that re-build is that whereas before we had one node feeding 5,000 homes, with the new plant one node will feed only 100 homes and the benefit to that is that we have actually increased the capacity that we can deliver to those homes," Serrao said.


He added that the new plant also would promote greater reliability of the service as it is fully monitored so the technicians can tell from the network operation centre if a node has gone down or if the system has been affected in a certain area.

Good read.

[BW]

Another week, another new article in the Business Express!

This one is a little different, since it deals with core technology that doesn't seem to be ready to be rolled out.

Extra-wide broadband technology for Vision 2020 (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business_mag?id=161267853)


Cooper Ramp Technologies under the management of telecommunications expert and scientist Dr. Boysie Goolcharan has come up with a revolutionary technology called "extra-wide broadband" which the company says will take Trinidad and Tobago to Vision 2020 in the field of technology.

Dr Goolcharan and Pranesh Maharaj, executive chairman/CEO, JP Parker Limited (public relations and project management consultants for Copper Ramp Technologies) sat down with Business Express last week to discuss the dynamic of this cutting edge technology that was patented by Goolcharan in the United States to be applied globally.

This is the really interesting bit right here.


Maharaj explained that the future of high-speed data transmission is available in Trinidad and Tobago today with 100 megabits per second upload and download speeds already available.

The patented technology enables TV quality, full motion video, audio and data in real time on unshielded twisted pairs (UTP) quality copper cables.

I guess copper has more life to it. Amazing.

It still seems to require a fiber backbone though, one which seems exactly like the solution TSTT is pursuing.


He explained that CRT's extra-wide broadband allows for high-speed data transmission in both directions (up load speed = download speed) on regular copper telephone cables. It is viewed as the ideal last mile solution, because it allows ultra-high speeds using the twisted-pairs copper telephone wires.

"If the telephone backbone is upgraded to fibre optics, the bulk of the data can be carried on fibre-optic cables, up to the junction box on the curb; CRT's extra-wide broadband will interface with fibre-optic cables and carry the signals to the user on the wires," Goolcharan added.

[BW]

Some new articles coming from of BitDepth and the Trinidad Guardian.

Service, service, service. (http://www.guardian.co.tt/bitdepth.html) gives you a quick glimpse of some of the troubles faced by consumers with reliability and support services of the two major ISPs, TSTT and Flow.

That's not all, however. Full versions of those comments can be found on the BitDepth blog, specifically here (http://www.lyndersaydigital.com/brain/files/broadbad.html).

What's probably the most interesting bit is the response from TSTT. It gives you some neat details into the changes made since launching Blink Broadband over in November last year.

http://www.lyndersaydigital.com/brain/files/deane.html

Selected quotes:


We've had to seamlessly integrate some legacy equipment with new IPDSLAM systems at our exchanges and make all of this work on a new Multi-protocol Layer Switching core inclusive of SMTP and DNS services. At the same time we increased our outbound bandwidth.

Neat.



Unfortunately, being the national communications service provider, we did not have the luxury of shutting down our entire network for a few weeks to put everything together so we had to do the next best thing. Incrementally roll out, test, refine, expand, test, refine and then start the process again. Regrettably, the service issues experienced by the customers that wrote to you were examples of our early learning experiences.

The good news is the technology transfer that has been happening between TSTT and our partners means that new issues which we anticipate will still arise, will become fewer, of shorter duration and much farther between. Within the next 3 months we expect that we would have returned our service to '5/9' reliability that is 99.999% uptime- as one of your customers alluded.

Sounds good.


So we've had to bite the bullet and accept the early criticism of what seemed to be a slow response to customers but what was in fact a necessary quality assurance process.
In light of these issues which did put our customers at a disadvantage, we took the decision in December, that until we got Blink to existing residential TSTT High-speed Internet (ADSL) customers, we would cut their existing monthly rates in half. This 50% discount will continue until their service is ungraded to Blink Broadband.


We are also making improvements with our Help Desk facilities, both in terms of manpower, troubleshooting ability, and diagnostic systems. The goal is to equip them with tools to remotely repair internet issues, inclusive of re-setting modems, changing configurations, etc.

^^ Intaresting.

If any more information comes up, I'll be sure to post it. ;)

[BW]

I'm seriously flogging a dead horse, but meh. I'll continue to post updates as the telecom sector continues to develop.

Remember that little startup, Windward Telecom mentioned here last November? It seems they are finally getting ready to launch, providing bandwidth to independent ISPs throughout Trinidad and Tobago.

Read this here (http://www.guardian.co.tt/bussguardian7.html) article in the business Guardian (28.02.2008)!

Quick Highlights:

"T&T telecommunications startup Windward Telecom plans to launch its services over the next few weeks and complete infrastructure to target the oil and gas industry in the second half of the year, according to CEO Doug Cunningham."

Operations expected to begin within 3 weeks. Blame TSTT for delayed interconnection.

Two phases of operations.

First phase will "provide low-cost wholesale telecommunications services to independent Internet service providers (ISPs) and other companies with high bandwidth requirements using existing and newly constructed telecommunications fiber optic networks."

"The second phase of development—known as the Trinidad Offshore Fiber Electronics project—will involve building two separate self-healing rings to serve the oil and gas industries."

Plans to expand to St. Vincent.


Also, in the second half of this year or the early part of 2009, Windward plans to expand to St Vincent and the Grenadines by buying capacity on existing fibers and developing fixed wireless networks.

“There are not really any alternative carriers or ISPs on those islands. They lend themselves to very small-scale modular fixed wireless operations, like those which have been set up in Barbados, Bermuda, St Lucia and The Caymans,” Cunningham said.

And now for some info on the cables they are using:


Windward currently leases capacity on the Americas II fiber optic network. The company is already “getting tight on capacity” and—in light of the company’s growth predictions—Windward is “actively looking” at buying capacity on the infrastructure of Global Caribbean Networks or Columbus Communications, Cunningham said, adding that it was “more likely the former than the latter.”

Note Americas II has the lowest capacity of the bunch. It was used in the past by TSTT to give DSL and other internet services.

Global Caribbean Networks is TSTT's current solution (via Southern Caribbean Fiber). This is likely where most Blink Broadband traffic goes through.

Columbus Communications (aka New World Network) is the parent company of Flow Trinidad. They own and operate the new ARCOS-1 link that landed last October.