Communications in Bermuda

Bermuda has five television stations, a small cable microwave system, three cellular services, three submarine cables, two satellite earth stations, and four Internet service providers.

Telephone

*Calling code: 1 441
*Telephones - main lines in use: 48,000 (1995)
*Telephones - mobile cellular: 6,324 (1995)
*Telephone system:
**domestic: modern, fully automatic telephone system
**international: 3 submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Bermuda's telephone system is part of the "North American Numbering Plan" -- calls between Bermuda, the USA, Canada and most of the Caribbean requires the caller dialling "1", then the 3-digit area code, then the 7-digit number.

Radio

*Radio broadcast stations: AM 5, FM 5, shortwave 0 (1998)
*Radios: 82,000 (1997)

There are two main broadcasting companies in Bermuda: the Bermuda Broadcasting Company (BBC, not to be confused with the British BBC) and DeFontes Broadcasting Ltd.. The BBC owns four "most listened to" radio stations, two with the callsign ZFB and two with the callsign ZBM. VSB owns a few radio stations with the VSB callsign. One of BBC's popular stations inlcude Power 95 (94.9). It plays mostly hip hop, R&B, and reggae. It has been popular over the years, until competition from Hott 107.5 began. DeFontes' main FM station is Mix 106.1. The station plays a variety of music, although mostly adult contemporary and top 40.

Two new licenses were also given out by the government in April 2004 to Inter-Island Communications and LLT Broadcasting. Inter-Island Communications operates Hott 107.5 FM, Hott 107.5 plays a mixture of R&B, hip hop, reggae and some gospel. Overnight HOTT 107.5 FM became the number one radio station in Bermuda and has maintained that position. The Programme Director for the station is non-other than Elroy RC Smith (WGCI - Chicago) who is widely respected as one of the top PD in America. The station has a free stream at [www.hott1075.com] . Inter-Island Communications Ltd. expanded their coup of the established stations by launching its Adult Contemporary station, MAGIC 102.7 FM in February, 2007 which has quickly become the favourite easy listening station.

LLT Broadcasting operates a Jazz station 98.1 FM, which has successfully captured a large segment of the mature listeners of the BBC stations. The station streams live at www.bdaradio.com.

American satellite radio is also available.

Television

*Television broadcast stations: 3 (1997)
*
*Televisions: 66,000 (1997)

There are two main television broadcasting companies in Bermuda: (BBC, not to be confuse with the BBC in the UK) and DeFontes Broadcasting Ltd. (VSB). The Bermuda Broadcasting is a privately held corporation. The BBC owns two television stations (an ABC and a CBS affiliate) and VSB owns one television station (an NBC affiliate). All three television stations are commercial - there is no equivalent to Canada's CBC/Radio-Canada, the US's PBS, and the UK's BBC in Bermuda. A new TV station, called Fresh Creations, is a community TV station. Another channel, called Look TV, is primarily a rolling calendar of events.

All five TV channels can theoretically be picked up over the air without the need of cable, but cable is actually necessary for reception purposes - without it reception of some channels like VSB in Hamilton is extremely bad. (See [http://www.bermuda-online.org/media.htm the "Media" section of Bermuda Online] for details)

Recently, there has been talk [http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060323/NEWS/103230127&SearchID=73240951740102] [http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060310/MIDOCEAN/103100145&SearchID=73240951740102] [http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060302/NEWS/103020108&SearchID=73240951740102] in the Bermudian government of creating its own TV station, saying that it is needed "to speak directly to the public 'in an unmediated and unedited fashion'" [http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060302/NEWS/103020108&SearchID=73240951740102] , while critics state that it will be no more than a propaganda exercise.

Satellite television is also used, but is unreliable, as the only satellites available are those mainly servicing the United States of America, Canada and Latin America, and is on the edge of the reception area. Digital cable is available, as is wireless.

Internet

*Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 4 (2002)
*Country codes: BM

The .bm code is controlled by the Bermuda Government's Department of Intellectual Property, a part of the Registry General and andministered by CSSD, the government's IT support group. The .bm domains are primarily granted to Licensed Businesses. Private accounts do exist, however.

References

"Much of the material in this article is adapted from the CIA World Factbook 2000."

External links

* [http://www.gov.bm/portal/server.pt?space=Opener&control=OpenObject&cached=true&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=4&in_hi_ClassID=512&in_hi_userid=2&in_hi_ObjectID=330&in_hi_OpenerMode=2&] Bermuda Government's Telecommunications home page.