With it’s 34% of the Dominican Cellular and internet market-share it looks like Orange is looking into leaving the Dominican Republic. While it is no likely to be bought by Claro who already holds a little over 50% of the Dominican market it will likely be bought by another company like competitors Viva and Tricom, so services should continue even after the change.

Higher Prices for Foreigners

Internet is always a delema for me in the DR. When I first started my plan with Claro I didn’t have my cedula yet so I had to use my passport. When you do this Internet companies here charge you considerably more of the service. For example the current price for 10g of internet per month is 1995 pesos per month on the Claro website, I pay 3500 pesos per month because my plan was started without a cedula. I have to now start a new plan now that I have a cedula.

This was the same with Orange who wanted a deposit of several mill even though I was planning to buy the modem myself and use their prepay internet. They would also be charging extra each month because I was starting the plan with a passport and not a cedula.

Lower price might come at a price!

This brings me back to my delema. I recently received my cedula after a year and a half wait while it was processed. So I was planning to check out Orange which seems to work pretty well in my area and at a much lower price than Claro, but now with the company planning on selling ‘m not sure I want to get locked into a company that may be improved or may be dismantled. Orange service is already pretty spotty I would hate to get locked into a year and a half contract and the company stops maintaining thier equipment.

Always something when trying to get services in the DR. On the bright side this is a great place to live if you want to work on some of those “Fruitages of the Spirit” with long suffering and self-control seeming to top the list. 🙂 Dominican cell phones and internet, Can’t live with the companies, can’t communicate without them…..