Actually, Borat had it good. Reading the Timor Telecom phone book cover to cover reminded me about internet charges here.
There is no unlimited dial-up plan here so it is difficult to make a dial-up comparison between TL and Kazakhstan. I figured that a modest low-end permanent 256kbps connection would still be something that people in western countries could at least comprehend. Fortunately this comparison was easy. I even added in Afghanistan and Australia to the mix. The results (which may not include some other charges like installation fee) follow :
| Monthly charge for 256kbps permanent connection (unlimited traffic) |
|
| Timor-Leste | $1750 |
| Kazakhstan | $1057 |
| Afghanistan | $350 |
| Australia | $35 to 40 |
I struggled to find a figure for unlimited dial-up in Kazakhstan but an article from mid-2007 suggested USD111 per month (ie 720 hours). If you are on the heavy-user dial-up plan here, you will get about 40 hours for your USD111.
On a related matter, I cringe every time I see or hear someone refer to “broadband” internet in reference to internet access here and when I do, I nearly always correct them to say “permanent internet connection”. A 128 kbps connection shared between even 5 users in an internet cafe is not broadband. These days, most of the internet cafes have moved to 256kbps but unless there is no more than a handful of users, it is often pathetic particularly when compared to the modestly priced home internet connection I had before coming here (ie factor of 10).
I know I am being a pedant, but a simple search of online “TV” re-broadcasting over the internet shows streaming speeds of over 256kbps are the most common. I refer you to JLC’s Internet TV free internet TV listing.
A look back at a post I did nearly 2 years ago suggests that Timor Telecom tariffs have not moved 1 cent since then. I guess I should “churn” to a competitor. Hey, wait a minute … there isn’t one.
I subscibe to a ‘remote mail agent’. They scan in the front of the envelopes and then allow the user to choose what action to take with the postal mail. Recently, they ‘upgraded’. Actually, they added some .asp components that take up so much bandwidth that now the service is almost useless over my 19.2kbs line (since the 12th of November rain). I wrote many times and explained that their ‘upgrade’ is not an upgrade and as they claim, this service allows people to see their postal mail ‘all over the world’ that they need to know what the ‘world’ has in terms of bandwidth.
You’re joking! Tell me USD 1750 is incorrect?!! At that price a satellite phone to Darwin would be cheaper! Can you get an Indosat signal from Atambua? or something?
I refer you to page 82 of the telephone directory and to the following web page where the same information is repeated :
http://www.timortelecom.tp/eng/planos_11_uk.html
Your Afghan numbers are way off. We’ve been shopping lines here in Kabul. Just went with a package for $1350. They ranged up $1800/month and also require set up fees of up to $6,000.