Fierce competition in the local wireless telecommunications industry is benefiting the consumer in the form of progressively better service and pricing, according to the Computer Society of Bermuda.

CSB yesterday published a "quick reference guide" giving an analysis of how the three main cellular providers square up against each other with several different packages.

"We are excited to see the recent shift in the cellular market," CSB director Raymond Seymour said. "Almost overnight, we have seen landscape change with Bermudians now being afforded high speed data to their cellphones at over 2 MBps (megabits per second), have cutting-edge devices like the iPhone and have seen their cellular bills drastically cut by almost 30 percent."

CSB, which monitors many aspects of personal technology, said that last year, M3 Wireless was offering unlimited voice and text for $198. Today that has fallen to $138 with the added value of 50 free international text messages included in its plan.

In a statement released yesterday, CSB said: "M3 have led the way in reshaping the cellular market in Bermuda. This is significant, when one considers the residential ISPs (Internet service providers) were so vocal in stating Bermudian companies cannot compete against international brands.

"The M3 Wireless team has shown tremendous tenacity in making the user experience the best it can be — they went out of their way to roll out a new network, secured 'the must have device' and delivered it all at the right prices — covering off on product, price and service; CSB commends them."

CSB said the net effect of these changes appeared to cause Digicel to try its best to keep the attention of its customers "and not fall below the Bigger, Better moniker they boisterously communicate".

"They presented two new offers — Free Incoming Mobile to Mobile Calls and Multimedia Message Service (MMS)," CSB stated. "This has seen challenge because customers didn't forget — Mobility (the past name of M3) launched Free In-Network calling many years ago and CellularOne rolled out MMS service over four years ago on a cutting edge 3G CDMA network.

"Also, Digicel's introduction of Unlimited has been short lived because M3 undercut their package price by about 18 percent. Although the market has been changed, companies continue to claim better value."

CSB recommends that cell phone customers should look at their last two bills and assess whether they appear to show the best value possible.

Then determine what they are really using their device for — voice, text or data or all -and choose what is best for their budget, then their lifestyle.

CSB is undertaking a smart phone survey, in order to gauge community interest and show areas where technology education may be needed. To take part, visit the CSB website at www.csb.bm and click on surveys > smartphones.