Trinidad and Tobago Internet Access Providers' Dial-up access Rates. March 1998.

This does not rigorously compare the accounts offered by the "ISPs" but serves as a basic guide. So important differences are for example whether unused hours for one month are passed over to the next, or whether one gets storage space for webpages and how easy it is to use that space.

This table is meant to highlight the "shock bill syndrome" aspect of internet access billing strategies. A ballpark figure of 20% is chosen here as a measure of shock bill impact, so the shock bill is the bill that you get when the ISP claims that you were online 20% longer than your paid package. The Shock Bill Factor - SBF - is the percentage that the "Additional Hours" cost compared to the Monthly package charge, while you were reading all that Free Advertising on the Net.

Shock Bill Syndrome is what tends to happen to people for the First Month after signing up (and how they feel about it for a long time afterwards.)
Where necessary, 720 hours is used for unlimited access.
Company #PoPs PoP Locations Account $$$ Hrs/month Effective $/hr $/Xtra hours Shock Bill SBF
Carib-Link 5 Newtown-PoS
San Fernando
St Augustine
Chaguanas
Diego Martin 		1
2
3
4
5 		$100
$140
$200
$300
$600 		40
60
100
200
Unlimited 		$2.50
$2.33
$1
$1.50
$1.20		 $10 $180
$420
$400
$700
N/A 		350%
200%
100%
133%
N/A
Interserv 4 Diego Martin
PoS
St Augustine
Scarborough		 1 $100 100 $1 $10 $200 100%
Opus 1 Newtown-PoS 1
2 		$57.50
$115 		20
100 		$2.88
$1.15		 $1.15 $62.10
$138 		8%
20%
TSTT 1 PoS 1
2
3
4 		$69
$125
$200
$695 		20
50
100
Unlimited 		$3.45
$2.50
$1
$0.97 		$15 $129
$275
$500
N/A 		87%
120%
$150
N/A
WOW.Net 1 Newtown-PoS 1
2 		$125
$200 		75
125 		$1.67
$1.60		 $8 $245
$400 		96%
100%