Email communication in belize.

Hi we are in the Belmopan area and use the smart mifi the worst times of day are 3pm to 7pm. I say it is the kids doing homework, my family think it is the kids playing games after school, rest of the time it is usually ok. All our smart phones and 2 or 3 computers use it with occaisional Ipad use for skype. for some reason skype is better on the Ipad poor on phones and not 100% on the computers ( apple macs or toshibas) hope this helps somewhat.

belize boy wrote:

recommendations for internet service greatly appreciated.  my 4g service works fine in the middle of the night, usually upto 7-00am.  normal day time service very irregular. (Hopkins area)

I am in Placencia Village, using Smart Broadband Unlimited Internet service. The lowest speed is 4 Mbps down/ 2 Mbps up for BZ $62/month.  Note this is not cellular based Mi-Fi. it is a dedicated fixed in place Antenna/Radio unit that feeds a Smart supplied router with Wi_fi and Ethernet ports.

They do have two faster speeds, but we use this slowest one for streaming Netflix, YouTube, VOIP internet phone,  and other streaming  services as well as regular browsing without any problems or buffering. 

Having tried the local cable provider, this is a much better service.  The one possible catch, is you need to have a place for them to mount their small antenna that has a clear view of one of their towers.

BTL wants a BZ $500 deposit for their new fiber-based service but I  am not about to pay their outrages fees. Deposit for Smart was equal to one months service.

We live off-grid and rural. Outside Belize's cities & towns the best way to get internet/ email access is thru SMART's 3G cellular service, then with a "MiFi" unit by Novatel Wireless, purchased from SMART.

We are too far for line-of-sight antennae, and our HughesNet Satellite Dish was a nightmare.  The MiFi here operates on 3G, but 4G can be an option if you are closer to town. It allows us to communicate freely via email and surf the internet. It will not download videos, TV, or movies without eating up all your expensive data.

Here we can easily make VOIP WhatsApp phone calls to/from anywhere (much of the time), and my wife calls friends & family in the US via FaceTime on her iPhone.   Some areas in Belize have no cellphone service - so there you would need a cellular signal booster, or some type of weak/ inefficient/ expensive satellite dish.

It also seems that with Belize cellular providers a "gigabyte" is measured much differently than USA, Canada, or Europe. Belize gigabytes are much smaller - and far more expensive.