Expensive internet service

[NewsWhore]

According to Tricom, the monopoly on submarine cables is the reason behind the high fees charged for internet services in the Dominican Republic. A report by Clave weekly newspaper indicates that coinciding with this complaint is Verizon's announcement that dial-up internet services will be free of charge for a large number of users. According to Jose Salce, vice president of Residential Lines at Tricom, one of the reasons that the cost of internet services has remained so high is that operators have to pay fees for the connection to submarine cables to and from the island, a service that is run by Verizon. "Access to the submarine cable is managed by a specific provider (Verizon) which does not charge costs for its services in the market that are charged to other operators and which are disproportionate when compared to other markets", complained Salce. The charges represent 15 to 20% of the fee applied to the end user. On 3 August, Clave reported on how European and United States providers offered access speeds 7 to 30 times faster than in the Dominican Republic, for lower prices. According to Verizon's Eduardo Valcarcel, the European and United States markets are not comparable to the local market. He stated that Verizon has some 80,000 broadband clients compared to 15 million users that any service provider in the US might have.

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