ONE of the nice things about living on Guam is that our Internet and broadband services are comparable to many advanced states in the mainland. Despite our isolation, we are just as connected as people in the states, if not more so, with access to many things the Internet and wireless technology have to offer.

We can stream content from Netflix and Hulu, though for the life of me I still can’t understand why Amazon and Vudu can’t, or won’t, stream movies to Guam. On the wireless front, GTA Teleguam is already offering fourth generation, or 4G, cellular services albeit in a limited number of locations. IT&E is also reportedly working with telecom giant Ericsson to launch a new 4G LTS service.

In fact, the Guam market is unique in that it has so many telecom providers for such a small island. One would think that with telecom deregulation, the same would also be true in the mainland. But the telecom industry in the U.S. is dominated by just a handful of firms, which is remarkable considering the huge size of the U.S. market.

Our relatively advanced broadband services was recently confirmed by a report entitled “The Most Expensive Internet in America” authored by Michael Calabrese, Daniel Calarco, and Colin Richardson.

According to the report, Guam is the most fortunate among the three U.S. Pacific territories because of our island’s access to tremendous bandwidth. Moreover, the report noted that prices for DSL connection in Guam are very similar to the prices paid by AT&T and Verizon customers on the mainland. And if a customer buys a faster tier of Internet service, the price per mbps goes down.

In contrast, the CNMI, just 100 miles to the north, has much slower Internet and their prices are higher than those in Guam. Moreover, the report said bandwidth in the CNMI is so constrained that purchasing higher-tiered packages actually increases the price per megabit.

“But even these relatively good prices are too high for many: Only half of those who use the Internet in the CNMI have broadband at home. Most without it cite cost as the prohibitive factor,” the report stated.

One of the telecom firms in the CNMI has already disputed the report’s findings. Dr. Frederick Hill, IT&E’s chief technical officer, has denied the charge that the CNMI has one of the priciest Internet systems in America.

“I spoke to Calarco, and his calculation was an ‘apple-to-orange’ comparison. ... Guam’s Internet charges are not five times cheaper!” stated Hill in a story that appeared in the Variety’s CNMI edition.

Moreover, Hill argues that when all costs are built in to the Internet price (such as landline fees), the CNMI is “highly competitive” both in the region and nationally, and certainly not one of the most expensive in the U.S.

Of course, that had not stopped IT&E from applying for a federal grant to upgrade its CNMI service. Rival GTA Teleguam is also citing the commonwealth’s “underserved status” in wanting to start operations in the CNMI.

So what is Guam’s edge over the CNMI? Why do we enjoy so much bandwidth at a lesser cost than our cousins in the CNMI? The secret, of course, lies in all those telecom submarine cables that go through our island, which has been characterized by one telecom executive as Guam’s “buried treasure.”

Guam sits at the intersection of several major undersea telecommunication cables, which has made the island a telecom hub for numerous international telecom providers with submarine cables linking Guam to the U.S., Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Australia.

Because of these submarine cables, Guam has developed one of the most advanced telecom infrastructure in the Pacific region. The U.S. mainland, in fact, is heavily dependent on our island because most of the major telecom carriers in the U.S. use Guam as a hub for their trans-Pacific fiber optic cables.

If we compare the state of telecom on Guam from, say, even just a decade ago, the competitive landscape would be totally unrecognizable. We now have two competing cable TV networks, digital TV, as well as a whole menu of wireless and cellular telephone options to choose from.

Because of this, although we live on a relatively remote island, Guam residents don’t feel isolated because of this interconnectivity with the wider world outside.

And what’s exciting is that even more development is on the horizon as telecom firms no longer see Guam as a small and relatively finite market. The expansion of the military on Guam, although now smaller in scale, will increase the size of the Guam market, giving telecom companies an incentive to upgrade their services. That is why there is a race now to build capacity to scale up and accommodate this looming market.

Now, how do we leverage our advanced telecom infrastructure to boost the island’s overall economy? To use Web 2.0 speak, how do we “monetize” all those telecom cables passing through us?

Well, our tremendous bandwidth alone should make us an attractive base for U.S. companies wishing to penetrate the emerging and booming Asia-Pacific markets. Plus, the fact that our island is a U.S. territory is a terrific advantage because Guam can offer the ultimate in security and convenience for stateside companies that want to co-locate in the Asia-Pacific region.

Finally, we can also serve as the telecom center of our region, with all the ancillary businesses and services that such a status can spawn, such as regional e-commerce, online learning, and the now-emerging industry of telemedicine.

Remember, bandwidth will rule the future and we have the advantage of having more fiber connecting us than almost any other island in the world. We are one of the most wired places on Earth.