Communications in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic has extensive mobile phone and land-line services. INDOTEL, Instituto Dominicano De Telecomunicaciones, regulates and supervises the development of the country telecommunications market. The Dominican Republic has Cable Internet and ADSL in most parts of the country. Projects to extend Wi-Fi (wireless internet) hots spots have been undertaken in Santo Domingo. Numerous television channels are available. Telecable Nacional and Wind Telecom provide television services digitally, with channels from around Latin America and elsewhere in the world.

Telephones - main lines in use:936,299 (2008)

Telephones - mobile cellular:6,158,020 (2008)

Telephone system:
"domestic:"very efficient system based on island-wide microwave radio relay network and fiber optics lines that cover many of the main cities
"international:"connected to the ARCOS (America's Region Caribbean Optical-ring System); 1 coaxial submarine cable; satellite earth station - 1; Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:AM 143, FM 247, shortwave 14 (2008)

Radios:1.44 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:46 (2008)

Televisions:770,000 (1997)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):8 [Codetel, Claro(ADSL and wireless), Tricom(WIMAX, ADSL, WIRELESS and Cable), Aster (CABLE), VIVA (wireless), France Telecom (wireless), One Max (WIMAX), Wind Telecom (WIMAX)] (2008)

Internet Accounts:294,392 (2008)

Country code: DO

Broadband Internet access

The Dominican Republic is considered one of the countries with the most advanced telecommunications infrastructures in Latin America, with over 6 million cell phones connected (on just about 10 million populants, with 3.5 million of them on extreme poverty conditions) and large companies like Codetel and Orange (FR) on the telecommunications market. Broadband Internet access is growing, with over 294,392 Internet accounts globally and 2,100,000 Internet users as of July, 2008 according to INDOTEL(DR Telecommunications Institute). Broadband DSL represents about 60% of the total Internet subscribers. There is access to regular ADSL, G.SHDSL, and services only on metropolitan areas, costs are high and service is decent. Cable Internet is offered by a couple of cable companies at lower costs than ADSL but the service is very deficient and unreliable. WiFi hotspots are almost non-existent, with just a few in university campuses and other not-so-public areas. The implementation of the Wimax technology by some of the Cell-phone service providers(Tricom) are resulting in the rapid investment by other providers in the market to match the new and faster platform of services.Also the ongoing installation of a Fiber-Optic network structure in the National District and the City of Santiago (second largest in the country) will force other competitors into upgrading theirs to be able to compete in the markets they now lead.

Pricing information (Including taxes) October/2008

Codetel ADSL Internet Flash

*Basic 1 = 256 kB/s Downstream and 128 kB/s Upstream for 889 DOP (26 USD)
*Basic 2 = 384 kB/s Downstream and 128 kB/s Upstream for 1088 DOP (32 USD)
*Basic 3 = 768 kB/s Downstream and 128 kB/s Upstream for 1657 DOP (48 USD)
*Basic 4 = 1.5 MB/s Downstream and 128 kB/s Upstream for 2816 DOP (82 USD)

*Advanced 1 = 768 kB/s Downstream and 512 kB/s Upstream for 1785 DOP ( 52 USD)
*Advanced 2 = 1.5 MB/s Downstream and 768 kB/s Upstream for 3648 DOP (107 USD)
*Advanced 3 = 2.0 MB/s Downstream and 768 kB/s Upstream for 4217 DOP (124 USD)
*Advanced 4 = 3.0 MB/s Downstream and 1.0 MB/s Upstream for 4985 DOP (146 USD)
*Advanced 5 = 5.0 MB/s Downstream and 1.0 MB/s Upstream for 7673 DOP (225 USD)

Claro EVDO/HSDPA Mobile Broadband

*200MB = Up to 3.5 MB/s Downstream for 960 DOP (28 USD)
*500MB = Up to 3.5 MB/s Downstream for 1273 DOP (37 USD)
*Unlimited = Up to 3.5 MB/s Downstream for 2041 DOP (60 USD)

See also

* Dominican Postal Institute

External links

* [http://www.indotel.org.do Indotel (Dominican Republic Communications Regulation Authority)]
* [http://www.codetel.com.do Codetel, comunicación sin límites ]
* [http://www.wind.com.do Wind Telecom]
* [http://www.viva.com.do VIVA]
* [http://www.tricom.net Tricom]
* [http://www.orange.com.do Orange ™]
* [http://www.onemax.com.do ONEMAX]