Despite the glitches, people who have digital subscriber lines, or DSL, for high-speed Internet access from the Bermuda Telephone Company are glad they upgraded.

"I don't know anybody that has it that doesn't rave about it," said Dr. Charles Finn, a director of the Computer Society of Bermuda who has had DSL since May. "I don't know of anyone in the Computer Society that has the option and doesn't do it."

Dr. Finn is happy, despite waiting nine months for DSL service after it was initially promised, connection speeds which vary wildly (and are occasionally slower than a regular modem's) and being bounced between BTC and his Internet service provider (ISP) when he had problems.

Subscribers are not ecstatic so much because of the quality or the service they have upgraded to, but more because of the improvement over what they upgraded from - temperamental and expensive dial-up connections.

"The only reason it's so wonderful is because previously it was so terrible," said Dr. Finn.

When Dr. Finn moved to Bermuda from Boston six years ago, he downgraded from a broadband connection - the industry term used to describe high-speed residential Internet connections, including DSL or Internet over cable television lines - to dialling into the Internet with an analogue modem.

"It was like going to the dark ages," he recalled, although at the time, broadband connections were still extremely rare in the US.

As a heavy Internet user, a dial-up connection cost him a lot of money every month. None of the ISPs were offering unlimited access for a flat rate, so he was paying about $150 a month for Internet access, including charges for many extra hours not included in his package.

On top of that, he had a second Internet line at $26 a month and "it was an unusual month" if he had less than 400 overcalls, which cost 20 cents each and which added up quickly since his calls were frequently dropped because of the poor telephone connection.

DSL technology allows subscribers to talk on the telephone and use the Internet at the same time. BTC also eliminated overcall and hourly charges for customers who switch to DSL.

Including BTC's fees and Internet charges, the cost of a baseline DSL connection with unlimited Internet access is about $190 a month.

Although some customers' connection speeds vary significantly, in theory a DSL Internet connection is at least twice as fast as a regular modem and allows customers to be constantly connected to the Internet, depending on what package they buy from their ISP.

Both North Rock and Logic Communications offer 25-hour, 50-hour and unlimited DSL packages. A spokesman for Logic said that more than 80 of the company's DSL subscribers were on an unlimited plan, while a North Rock spokeswoman said that more than 90 percent of its DSL subscribers were on such a plan. Now, customers have a connection which is faster and, with an unlimited package, leave their computer permanently connected to the Internet. With some extra equipment, they can also share a DSL connection between several computers.

Subscribers to North Rock's competing wireless broadband service, connecthome, receive the the same benefits for about the same price as DSL. North Rock uses three antennas - one mounted on City Hall, another atop Town Hill in Flatts and a third at Prospect - to transmit Internet signals to antennas mounted on customers' roofs. The company hopes that by the fourth quarter, 80 percent of households covered by its service, which is limited somewhat by the Island's hilly geography. A North Rock spokeswoman was keen to emphasise the company's ability to control the entire customer experience by bypassing BTC and quicker installation times.

For customers with wireless or DSL Internet service, the ability to remain online without paying more has the most dramatic effect on how they use the Internet. An ever-present connection has also changed the way Dr. Finn uses the Internet. It is now a matter of course for him to consult a web page to look for information rather than make a phone call or use a book.

"When I see a word in the paper I don't understand, I don't look it up in a dictionary," Dr. Finn said. "I go online."

"Because it is faster and more reliable and it's just there," Dr. Finn explained. "It's like turning the water on. Imagine if you had to prime the pump every time you wanted to drink a glass of water. You'd drink a lot less water."

Dr. Finn also telecommutes a few days a week to the Computer Society's office on Richmond Road, which is also connected to the Internet via DSL. He said he could not have telecommuted with a dial-up connection. But DSL "is not blindingly fast yet," as Dr. Finn put it, and the relatively slow speeds of broadband Internet may pose some limitations. For instance, the New York Times' electronic edition, a digital replica of the paper's hard copy format, is "best suited for users with high-speed connections", according to the paper's website, because of the large files customers have to download. It suggests customers have a DSL or cable modem, which in most other places means a connection speed between 768 kilobytes per second and thousands of kilobits per second.

Most people with DSL or wireless Internet service in Bermuda connect at 128 kilobits per second. The maximum connection speed offered by any of the ISPs is 512 kilobits per second, but such a connection is prohibitively expensive for most home users, with a price tag of nearly $500 a month. In the US, a connection of 1,500 megabits per second costs about $50 a month. Internet rates in Bermuda have historically been higher than other markets, mostly because of economies of scale and the high cost of connecting to the Internet backbone from the Island.

Technology experts expect Bermuda's high prices will limit the rate at which users adopt broadband technology.

"Cost is going to be the issue," said Nick Faries, the president of the Computer Society, and the telephone company and the ISPs are going to need to do something to get more people to switch.

According to BTC, 1,200 lines have been upgraded to DSL with a further 200 awaiting upgrading. Seventy percent of those lines connect households, with the remainder connecting small businesses without multi-line PBX phone systems.

According to a report by Nielsen/NetRatings, about 17 percent of all households with Internet access in the US have broadband, although other sources say the rate of take-up has slowed. Hong Kong topped the research firm's survey, with two thirds of Internet-connected households using broadband.

"At the moment, what you are going to see is people who are more Internet savvy jumping on broadband right away," Mr. Faries predicted. "For the less savvy users, they're going to take a lot longer to switch over."

"What they are going to see primarily is a very strong increase in price," he said. "`That's $180 more than I'm paying now and what's my benefit?' - that's what they are going to be asking."

Ten hours of Internet access costs about $20 a month, so although broadband saves money for heavy Internet users, it is much more expensive for people who use the Internet only once in a while to check their e-mail and consult a few websites. Dr. Finn suggested that prices could come down if cable Internet became another option, and CableVision has said that upgrades to its network will make it capable of carrying Internet traffic. However, the company, is 40 percent-owned by Key Tech, the parent company of BTC, which could limit competition between the two companies.