Falklands will have faster and cheaper broadband packages
The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) have announced a new price control mechanism to regulate the prices of regulated retail services provided by Cable & Wireless South Atlantic under their exclusive licence to the general public and businesses in the Falklands
The announcement follows lengthy negotiations between FIG and C&W and, after much exchange of information and discussions on the technicalities of implementation; a final agreement between the two parties was reached during face-to-face meetings held in the Falklands two weeks ago.
“Overall the mechanism ensures that on average prices will decline in real terms for all the regulated services, but it grants discretion to Cable & Wireless to determine individual service prices”, said Andrew Newman, Head of Regulatory Services.
“In practice this discretion may mean that some nominal prices could increase, but the mechanism is designed to protect the public by ensuring that prices averaged across all services will decline in real terms”, he added.
The start date for the price control mechanism is retrospectively set at 1st April 2011 and will run through to 31st March 2015. Customers can expect to see the following service improvements:
• Cheaper broadband packages from 1st Oct 2012 with monthly subscriptions falling by up to 25%
• Faster broadband download speeds from April 2013 with Gold packages doubling in speed to 2mb/s by 1 April 2014
• Increased broadband data allowance in current broadband packages over two years, commencing April 2013 with a 25% across the board increase and a further 25% in April 2014
• Continuation of the free night time window, available between midnight and 6am, through to 31st March 2015
A review of mobile data services to be carried out by FIG Regulatory Services in collaboration with Cable & Wireless in July 2013
FIG was assisted in the negotiation by their consultant Dr Chris Doyle. Annual compliance with the new price control mechanism will be managed by FIG Regulatory Services in conjunction with the audit team in FIG Treasury. The new price control mechanism ensures that FIG is in receipt of data to support its regulatory mandate.
The current exclusive licence held by Cable & Wireless expires in December 2019, with a notification date set 5 years prior to expiry.
Dick Sawle, Member of the Legislative Assembly described the agreement with C&W as an important step forward.
“Broadband prices will immediately reduce, with increases in data packages and improvements to connection speeds following in April 2013. The price control mechanism will ensure that prices continue to fall in real terms from now until 2015. It has only been possible to achieve this progress due to Regulatory services having sufficient powers under recent amendments to the legislation – powers which FIG did not have previously. I would like to thank our consultant Chris Doyle and also Andrew Newman and Terrianne Ormond for their hard work and constant efforts in getting us to this stage.”
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37 comments Feed
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You have to have the best,
Falklands, does exactly what it says on the tin,…
Still,
Argentina has broad band,
Only theirs are wider and it goes round their waste,…lol.
.
I want faster broadband too!!! and at a reasonable price!! It's got to be better than virginbloodymedia!!!
we have virgin,
so they tell us.
Yeah, I heard that as well, but you probably have to read the small print on that one..... It will no doubt say something like “10mb unless the day has a 'Y' in it. If so, you will have to take your chances along with everyone else”
They may call themselves “Virginmedia” but they will always and forever be “Diamond Cable”
Lame Joke time:-
A Billionaire had 3 sons and always wanted to do something special for them. So for Christmas one year he asks his first son “What would you like Father Christmas to bring you this year?”
His son thinks for a moment and then he says “I've always wanted a train set dad” So his father buys him Virgin Trains.
He asks his second son the same question and his second son says “I've always wanted a space ship” so his dad buys him NASA.
Then he asks his third son the same question and his third son says “Dad, I've always wanted a cowboy outfit” So his dad buys him YPF.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you I'll be here all week!!!!
How will this affect bid from Bahrain?
Is it that slow over there?
Here in provincial Chile I have 20MB broadband.
Will that be free services for Mike Summers and his “big heads” friends?
What has this got to do with Broadband connection ?
Who is everybody ? Names and details please - preferably with email address.
That would buy me about 2 hours wifi in FI......... at about 1 UKP for ten minutes.
Its supper fast! But I do live in the middle of a city, so that probably helps.
Nothing but hatred,
Still,
Whilst we use the web,
They still catch spiders….
.
Shit! now that's what I call cooking on gas!!!
Who'se your provider? The Phsycic Research Society!!!!!!!
LOL.
That should read upped from 50 mb/s to 120 mb/s with no increase in the cost to me (so free). :oD
However, as always it's with the disclaimer of 'up to 120 mb/s', which obviously depends on how many people are using the tinterweb at the time. But I must say I have noticed a vast improvement in the download speed.
@11 Why? Argies deserve at least a dozen kicks in the head every day!
@25 You don't have any land. The Falkland Islands aren't yours (and never will be.) They belong to the Islanders and Britain. The land you stand on isn't yours. You murdered or expelled the real owners! Mostly murdered.
This is with Talktalk and it costs about £22.50 a month, but includes phone line rental and free calls for up to 1 hour for all except premium rate numbers. Foreign calls are included to 24 countries.
Until BT upgrade the copper phone lines, this is as fast as I can get.
#25
A point about your post. Recuperate is incorrect in this case - you mean recover.
I make no comment on your claim to the Falklands as this has been done to death.
if you had a brain, you would be dangerouse,
as you do not,
we will not surplant it with a silly reply,
if that is your last silly comment,
we can get back to blogging..
This is a good description of Argentina, but simply not true of the Falklands.
Which, thanks to Argentina raising the Islanders profile, the world can now see.
Why would we agree to link up with Argentina to improve their service?
You are mis-informed señor.
This is NOT your land(& you will NEVER get it, either!).
@16 johnfarrel2050,
Stop lying, johnny-baby, the Falklands have got nothing to do with your country & its lies.
And the ancient Argies, devotees, to the lord CFK,
Slowly move back into the past.
Still,
Dinosaurs anyone ..lol.
.
Obviously a fibre to anywhere on the world's fibre network would allow vastly increased capacity. It would then be limited by the copper cable to people's houses - about 10Mbit/s, or a wireless LTE link - about 60Mbit/s. (A single fibre - the minimum - could support this many times over).
However, a fibre cable over 400km would cost hundreds of millions - so not affordable, unless it was a way stop for a South Africa - South America link.
It could be speeded up with a cache server in the Falklands. So frequently viewed ites, like this site, or Microsoft updates, are sent only once to the Falkands.
“were implanted by the same country ”
No implants, the vast majority of Falkland Islander descendents came to the islands of their own choice, they weren't placed there by the UK-ie there was no UK penal colony on the Falklands.
However there were some South American 'transplants' in 1832, sent to the penal colony that went a bit wrong when the soldiers mutined, killed the commander, and raped his wife in front of his children.
Were the civilians from South America from Vernet's settlement in the late 1820s that chose stay in the Falklands in 1833,also transplants then?
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