Satellite is good but pricey..... One way to get great sat internet without the astronomical prices of DR retailers (mostly due to import taxes) is to get your box/receiver in the US and bring it in your suitcase, get your connection plan set up overthere and only buy the parabolic antenna in DR.
Why you should not do that:
Parabolic antennas - manufactured in the DR are for television reception. The reflective surface of the dish is not conducive for a reliable satellite receive signal. Yes, I know people do that. I have three people at the moment crying for service to 'make their system work'. One came to our office yesterday with two systems in the back of the camioneta saying please, please, "I've spent so much money on equipment". He went away with his equipment still in the back of his camioneta, as what he bought, twice, does not work here.
Astronomical prices - You will find that a correctly specified satellite service is equivalent to Verizon's High End Business Service. You will find that we now have a master dealer for the Caribbean and Central America in the DR, for three suppliers. You will also find that for equivalent kit and equivalent bandwidth and thruput, the retail prices in the DR is higher than the US, only by the shipping and duties portion, sometimes shipping alone, as this equipment is supposed to be duty free, being computer equipment. Sometimes customs forgets and charge duties anyway. Installation cost is usually on a par with US prices for equivalent installs. Good dealers in the DR work to the same prices than in the US. Equivalency of service and kit, is the issue. We have to use different equipment here, as the satellites are further away. And we have to further heatshield and safeguard equipment.
Service - just four weeks ago, a satellite was 'moved'. If you were working with a reputable dealer, you would have been upgraded and would have suffered little interruption because of this. The customers of reputable dealers are at the moment being repointed to other satellites, which sometimes means other electronics, free of charge. The home diy installations are crying, and we can do nothing about it.
If you have a connection plan set up in the US, who is going to come out and fix, if you have a problem?. If a satellite becomes oversubscribed, (three times this happened over the past year) and you get no signal any longer, will you be able to receive an id on another satellite? Reputable dealers will not work with you, as they do not like to work on incorrectly specified and incorrectly installed and marginally usable equipment.
The reason why there are dealers here in the DR and the Caribbean, is that our circumstances are different than the set of circumstances in the US. That is why reputable suppliers from the US, prefer to work with reputable resellers, and specifically trained and certified installers here, as we understand and can function within our set of circumstances.
These larger systems are not yet one-size-fits-all. They need specification and matching to your requirements. The equipment itself, upon arrival in the DR, is further heatshielded, the installation itself is grounded (even in the DR) and installed to specifications that can withstand a hurricane of 125 miles per hour, as well as tropical conditions, and you get service and guarantees. One customer had his main modem damaged by power three times over the period of three months. He received a replacement in each instance. OK, after that we told him no more, he has to protect his equipment.
There are standards in this industry. You will find the reputable suppliers work to standards. Dishes are grounded, electronics are heatshielded and installed for tropical conditions. Reputable resellers have certification, and is registered at the DR authorities. They have a formally constituted businesses and they never ever use pirated bandwidth.
Yes, I know this is a treatise and I hope some of you have stopped reading .. just one more thing. Yesterday our installers were repointing a dish to another satellite. And could not find it. Turns out all the specifications on this satellite was incorrect. Would you be able to pick up the phone, find an alternative that would work with the specific set of electronics, get an id and point to another satellite, just quickly? I would say that if you did not have good relationships set up with rock-solid suppliers with large and well trained support staff, it would take you weeks to sort this one out. And it happens more often than not.