How fast is that high-speed connection?
Yes please, bring your laptop! (Heaven forbid you fully check out.) You can get online faster now than you could even a year or two ago. But, leave your hometown expectations behind. News of St. John recently reported that as many as 40 percent of villas now offer some kind of Wi-Fi connection. That is unquestionably great news, but in reality, here’s what you can expect:
Ackley Communications just informed its customers they were being upgraded from a 2.5 megabit download speed to 3.8 megabits. Choice Communications, which is the dominant broadband provider on St. John offers a basic package that is 1.9 megabits down, with their most popular service giving 2.6 megabits down. Those numbers are in a perfect world on a perfect day, and we’ve never had a connection even close that good. (Compare those top speed downloads to a typical stateside service, say Comcast, which provides as much as 12 megabits downstream.)
In reality, the very, very best you can expect is something about 30 percent as fast as you’re probably used to. But that’s still a whole lot better than it was a couple of years ago. So go ahead. Let work ruin an otherwise perfect week.





































July 13th, 2007 08:13
How close to 1.9/2.6mb are you? I get a measly 420/645kbs from Innovative.
How much is the Choice service? Innovative is $49/mo. Bundled with residential phone and cable and it drops to $39/mo.
July 13th, 2007 08:50
I’m bring my laptop just so i can check this site everyday.
July 13th, 2007 10:46
I was in FLA for a few days this week on “vacation”. and by “vacation”, I mean “only working 2 hours per day”. But, on StJ, all rules go out the window. It’s 100% off the reservation time for me. but, if WiFi is offered, I may have to bring my laptop for fantasy sports things. I always end up tanking my team the week when I’m away
July 14th, 2007 10:43
Speaking of WiFi, we seem to be stuck on “Friday the 13th”….kind of reminds me of “Ground Hog Day” ..all we need is Bill Murray. Guess Jeff and Russ must have had one heck of a party yesterday…..