Economics

School-Based Assessment

Name: Kenville Jack

School: St. Martin Secondary school
Territory: St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Candidate Number:
Subject: Economics
School code:
Teacher: Mr. Hinds
Date Submitted:

Title: An investigation of the demand for internet

services at the St. Martins secondary school between the
period of February 18th 2014 to March 5th 2014.
Introduction

In 1996, Glass founded Kelcom International Limited with acquisition of

CATV license in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, trading as Karib Cable. In 2002,
due to telecommunications de-regularization throughout the OECS, new
opportunities became apparent. Karib Cable successfully negotiated its ISP
licenses in St. Vincent & the Grenadines and broadband internet service was
also launched.
LIME, an acronym for 'Landline, Internet, Mobile, Entertainment', is owned
by the British based Cable & Wireless Communications. The company formed
from the integrated businesses of Cable & Wireless in the Caribbean which
adopted the LIME name on 3rd of November 2008.
With people spending a lot of time accomplishing tasks and doing
researches, the internet has become very important to individuals nowadays.
Without the internet some individuals think that they cannot survive because
of how it is used to provide a variety of information and communication
facilities in order to get the work done quickly and/or enjoy ones self with
family and friends. People are becoming very lazy and find it difficult to open
a book to find information, so instead they use the internet to gather the
information quickly. Businesses also use the internet to do market researches
and many other activities. The internet has basically any and every thing.
More than 50% of homes in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has internet
and for those that cannot afford the internet, the Government has provided
facilities to them.
With people wanting to send or receive emails, use search engine to
gather information, looking for hobby or interest on the web. I have decided
to do an investigation of the Internet Service industry within St. Vincent with
reference specifically to LIME and Karib Cable.

Acknowledgement
I would like to thank everyone who would have contributed to the
completion of this School-Based Assessment. First of all I would like to thank
God firstly for the opportunity to do such a project and also for the wisdom,
strength and understanding to complete this assignment. Other people who I
would like to thank are:
My Economics teacher for his constant advices and willingness to help.
All those who answered the questionnaires distributed.
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 My family for helping and supporting me during the execution of this

project.

Objectives of research
The aims of this investigation are:
1. To establish the type of relationship there is between price and
quantity demanded for internet service at LIME and Karib Cable.
2. To examine of the principal factors affecting the demand of LIME and
Karib Cable.
3. To examine the price elasticity of demand of internet service at LIME
and Karib Cable.
4. To determine whose internet service can mainly be found in form 5 of
the St. Martins secondary school.
5. To briefly examine the market structure for internet service in St.
Vincent.
6. To briefly examine the market conditions affecting the supply of
internet service at LIME and Karib Cable in St Martins secondary
school.

Method: The SBA was conducted at the St. Martins secondary school.
Primary Sources:
1. Questionnaire: Twenty questionnaires were shared out to students in
form 5 of the St. Martins secondary school.
2. Interview: The managers of LIME and Karib Cable were interviewed to
obtain information such as how they attract customers to their
business.

Secondary Sources:
1. Textbooks: Economics textbooks were used to have a clear
understanding of the Laws of Demand and Supply.
2. Internet: The websites listed in the bibliography were used to further
clarify economic concepts to enhance the school-based assessment.

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Presentation and Explanation of data

Question 1: All of the students have access to the internet in their homes.

Students who have internet at their homes:

Do you have access to the internet
at your home?
Yes
No

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# of students
20
0

Comparision of those students who have internet and those who do not

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Question 2: 60% of these students internet service provider is LIME while the other 40% internet service
provider is Karib Cable.

Students Internet Service Providers:

Internet service providers
LIME
Karib Cable

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# of students
12
8

Students Intenet Service Providers

Karib Cable; 40%

LIME; 60%

Question 3: Out of the 20 students, most of them said that their parents pay for the internet while the
other students said that their grandparents pay for the internet.

Who pays for the internet?

Myself
Parents
Grandparent(s)
Other

Results
0
16
4
0

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The payer for the internet

Myself

Parents

Grandparents

Other

20%

80%

Question 4: All of the students said that the person who pays for the internet at their home currently has a
job.

Does the person who pays for the internet

have a job?
Yes
No

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Results
20
0

# of Persons who have Jobs

25

20

15

10

0
Yes

No

Question 5: 20% of the students said that the person who pays for the internet is a part-time employee
while the remaining 80% said that the person is a full-time employee.

The person who pays for the internet a:

Part-Time employee
Full-Time employee

4
16

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# of Part-Time and Full-Time employees

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Part-Time

Full-Time

Question 6: 16 students said that the person who pays for their internet occupational classification is
white collar while the other 4 said its blue collar.

occupational classifications
white collar
blue collar

# of students who checked it

16
4

# of persons with their occupational classifications

Page 8 of 33

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
white collar

blue collar

Question 7: 90% of the students said that they use the internet for social networking while the remaining
10% said that they use it for information.

What do you use the internet mostly for?

Information
Social network
Marketing
Communication

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# of students
2
18
0
0

Students internet usage

10%
Information
social networking
Marketing
Communication
90%

Question 8: Majority (90%) of the students said that they use the internet daily.

How often students use the internet:

How often you use the internet?
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Yearly

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# of students
18
2
0
0

How often the students use the internet

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Yearly

Question 9: 12 of the students said that is the main factor while the other 8 said that its the price.

Main factor
Price of the internet service
Preference
Advertisement

8
12
0

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Factors affecting the students choice

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Price of the internet service

Preference

Advertisement

Question 10: 60% of the students said that the price range that the person who pays for their internet is
85-100 and the remaining 40% said that its 70-85.

Price ranges that the person(s) who currently pay for internet service per month pays:
Price ranges
$70-$85
$85-$100
$100-$130
$130-$200

# of students
8
12
0
0
Page 12 of 33

$200+

Price ranges
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

70-85

85-100

100-130

130-200

Question 11: All of the students said that their internet speed is 1 megabytes per second.

How fast is your internet?

1Mbps
2Mbps
3Mbps
4Mbps
200+
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20
0
0
0
0

200+

Students internet speed

25

20

15

10

0
1Mbps

2Mbps

3Mbps

4Mbps

Axis Title

Question 12: Most of the students (60%) do not experience any problems with their internet connections.

Do you experience any problems?

Yes
No

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# of students
8
12

Percentage of students who experience problems and does who don't

Yes

No

40%
60%

Question 13: Majority of the students (75%) who experience problems said that the internet becomes
very slow at times while the others (25%) said that at times they dont have any internet at times.

Problems
Slow internet at times

# of students

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No internet at times

Problems with internet

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Slow internet at times

No internet at times

Question 14: Out of the 8 student who experience problems with their internet connections, 2 of them
face it daily, another 2 face it weekly while the other 4 experience it on a monthly basis.

How often the students experience these problems:

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How often you face these

problems?
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Yearly

# of
students
2
2
4
0

Percentage of students and how often they experience problems

25%
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
50%

Yearly

25%

Question 15: 50% of the students said that they would purchase 2mbps at $60 per month.

# Of students buying
Mega Bytes Per Sec
1mbps

# of students
6
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2mbps
3mbps
4mbps

10
3
1

# of students and how much mbps they would buy at $60

12

10

Number of students

0
1mbps

2mbps

3mbps

4mbps

Question 16: Majority of the students said that they would purchase 2mbps at both of the prices.
At $100 per megabyte
Mega Bytes Per Sec
1mbps
2mbps
3mbps

# of students
4
9
4
Page 18 of 33

4mbps

3
At $120 per megabyte

Mega Bytes Per Sec

1mbps
2mbps
3mbps
4mbps

# of students
3
7
4
6

How much MBPS each student would purchase at a specific price

10
9
8
7
6
Number of students

5
4
3
2
1
0

MBPS

1mbps

2mbps

3mbps

4mbps

Supply Information
Responses of interviews conducted in Kingstown at LIME and Karib Cable
1. What methods do you employ to attract customers?
LIME
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Karib Cable

Advertisement
Cheap rates
Specials
Sponsoring events
Fast internet
Other

--

2. What factors affect your supply of internet services?

LIME

Karib Cable

Speed of internet
Cost of Production
Use of technology
Price of substitutes
Taxation/Subsidy

Analysis and Interpretation of Data

20 questionnaires were given to the students of form 5 in the St Martins

secondary school. Two interviews were conducted with the managers of LIME and
Karib Cable outlets in Kingstown, in St. Vincent.

Page 20 of 33

The internet service industry in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is one of an
Oligopoly market structure. Thus, there are only a few large firms, Homogeneous or
differentiated products, imperfect knowledge of the market, they are price makers
with price rigidity and also have many buyers. As such, there are little competition
levels which ideally lead to the producers satisfaction and welfare.
After the data were collected from the questionnaire, I discovered that all the
participants were between the ages of 16-17. The study as shown that LIMEs
internet service was the most demanded internet service in St. Martins Secondary.
Question 1: All (20 students) of the students who were given questionnaires
had access to the internet at their homes. This may due to the addiction to social
networking or the need of having the internet to gather information. Since the
internet is the quickest way of gathering information and communicating with
others the demand for internet would be high.

Question 2: In question (2) 60% of the students said that they have LIMEs
internet service while 40% have Karib Cables internet service. The fact that more
students preferred LIMEs internet service shows that some method of attracting
customers that Karib Cable is lacking. Based on the supply information gained from
the interviews, these methods include the sponsoring of events and other methods.
Effective use of these methods can increase the demand for internet, lower
production cost, will result in a decrease cost price and lead to an extension of
demand, all of which increases a firms profits.
Question 3: The question Who pays for the internet you have access to
was asked in question 3. Majority (80%) of the students said that they parents pays
for the internet while the other 20% said that their grandparents pays for the
internet. This shows that even students may have the desire and the willingness to
pay for the internet service; they are not backed by the ability to pay for it.
Question 4: All (20) of the students said that the person who pays for the
internet at their home currently has a job. This shows that persons who have jobs
are the ones who have ability to pay for internet service at their homes.
Question 5: In relation to question 5 responses, 16 of the persons who pay
for the internet are full-time employees while the other 4 are part-time. The 16 fulltime employees who might be eligible for benefits have LIMEs internet service and
this might be so maybe because of personal preference and wanting top quality
service.
Question 6: 16 students said that the person who pays for their internet
occupational classification is white collar while the other 4 said its blue collar. The 4
blue collar workers internet service provider is Karib Cable, which shows that people
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who receive less income prefers Karib Cables internet service maybe because of the
price of the service.
Question 7: In relation to question 8, 18 of the students use the internet
mostly for social networking while the other 2 uses it for information. Sites like
facebook and twitter are social networking sites that enable users to communicate
with each other by posting information, comments, messages, images, ect and
these sites have become the most popular website on the internet. So therefore
students may have a deep desire to have internet service to use these sites.
Question 8: According to question 7 90% of the students use the internet on
a daily basis. Based on the questionnaire this is due to addiction to social
networking by these students. The other 10% uses it weekly and this is due to the
need of gathering information.

Question 9: In question 9 the question was asked What is the main factor of
choosing your internet service provider? Many factors affect the demand for a
specific internet service such as preference, price of the internet and
advertisement. 60% of the students said that its because of preference while the
other 40% said that its because of price of the internet service. This may be so
because people may have a greater liking for a certain internet service because of
its reliability. No one wants to be experiencing difficulties with the internet while
surfing.
Question 10: 12 persons said that they pay a price range of $85-$100 while
8 persons said that they pay from $70-$85. According to the information on the
questionnaires the 8 persons who pays at the price range of $70-$85 internet
service provider is Karib Cable, which shows that Karib Cables rates are a little
cheaper than LIMEs rates.
Question 11: All of the students internet speed is 1 megabyte per sec.
Although LIME and Karib Cable provides 4mbps, which is a lot faster than 1mbps
shows that people only have the ability to pay for 1mbps a month.
Question 12: According to question 12, 60% of these students dont
experience any problems at times, while the other 40% experiences problems. The
60% of students who dont experience any problems internet service provider is
LIME. This means that even though LIMEs rates are a little more expensive, they
provide better service than Karib Cable and that is why LIME attracts more
customers to their services. The fact that LIMEs internet service is more expensive
may due to the cost of production.

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Question 13: 6 of the students who experience problems said that they
experience slow internet at times, while the other 2 students said that at times they
dont have internet at times.

Question 14: In relation to question 14 these problems were

experienced daily by 25% of these student, 25% weekly and 50% of the students
who experience problems experiences monthly.

Question 15: The question If the price for your internet was $60 a
month for 1MBPS (Mega Bytes per Second), you would purchase 1Mbps |2Mbps|
3Mbps| 4Mbps 50% of the students said that they would purchase 2mbps at
$60 per month. This shows that persons have the desire and willingness to purchase
2mbps but they dont have the ability to do so.

Question 16: 50 % of the students showed willingness to purchase 2mbps at

$60.00 per month. As price increases from $60.00 to $100.00 for 2mbps, the
quantity demanded decreased thus, the law of demand stands (as prices increase,
demand decreases). The P.E.D was calculated as -0.15, indicating price inelasticity.
As the price increases from $60.00 to $120.00, demand also decreases and the Law
of demand is also obeyed. The P.E.D. in this case was -0.3, thus indicating in another
price inelasticity.

Q
P
dQ P
1d
60
01 6
0 10
0
9
0
7 1
2
0

=0.
= 31 = 1
=
1 0.
0 3
= 0.1
= 14 =0. = 0. 0.6
=
= 00 66
6
3
0.
3
6
60 =
1
0
1
6
0

=0.15

Page 23 of 33

Findings
1. There is a negative relationship between the prices of internet service and
the quantity demanded. This simply means as price increases, quantity
demanded decreases and as price decreases, the quantity demanded
increases.
2. The principal factor affecting for internet service is ones preference.
3. Internet service is price inelastic, therefore the quantity demanded is
unresponsive to changes in price.
4. LIMEs internet service is mainly found in form 5 of the St. Martins
Secondary school. This may due to the more reliable service and
preference.
5. The existence of foreign firms (LIME) in the local economy can create good
competition and result in higher consumer satisfaction.

Page 24 of 33

Recommendations
Both LIME and Karib Cable can endeavor into improving in the following areas
if they havent already done so in order to boost sales and have a better
competitive stance:

Karib Cable should use suggestion boxes to get feedback from

customers about problems they face.

Increase advertising to make the customers to have a greater liking for

their internet service since preference is the factor affecting demand.

The government should open up the market for internet service further.
This would add to competition. Competition would lower prices and
also keep money in the country since LIME is owned by the British base
money is most likely exported out of the country.

Sponsor more events that are taken place in the country.

Sell 2MBPS at cheaper rates since more people are demanding 2MBPS.

Page 25 of 33

Conclusion

In this investigation between LIME and Karib Cable, I have come to realize the
major role that economics plays in the operation of a business. It was deduced that
LIME is a better internet service provider than Karib Cable since bigger consumer
market and their customers experience no problems.

Page 26 of 33

Bibliography
Book:
Dr. Hosein, R. Stanlake, G F. (2005). Longman Economics for CXC. Edinburgh
Gate, England: Pearson Education Limited.

Websites:
http://www.time4lime.com/vc/internet.jsp
http://www.karibcable.com/vc/

Interviews:

Manager of LIME, February 20th 2014 at 4:30 pm

Manager of Karib Cable, February 20th 2014 at 5:00 pm

Page 27 of 33

Appendix

Questionnaire
My name is Kenville Jack and as part of the preparation and investigation of
my Economic School-Based Assessment for CXC, I have prepared this questionnaire
for 5th form students at the St. Martin secondary school who is interested to fill out.
Pease do so by marking a tick
would be deeply appreciated.
Age: 15-16

16-17

for your choice or by writing. Your responses

18 or older

1. Do you have access to the internet at your home?

Yes
No
2. If you do have access to internet at your home, which of the following is your
internet service provider?
LIME
Karib Cable
3. Who pays for the internet you have access to?
Myself
Parents
Grand-Parent(s)
Other(s)
4. Does the person(s) who pays for your internet service has/have a job(s)?
Yes
No
5. Is the person(s) who pays for the internet a Part-Time or Full-Time employee?
Part-Time(Less than 40 hours a week)
Full-Time (work 40 hours a week or more)
6. What occupational classification(s) is the person(s) who pays for the internet
is under?
White collar (e.g Bankers, Teachers)
Blue collar (e.g Plumbers, Farmers)
7. What do you use the internet mostly for?
Page 28 of 33

Information
Social networking
Marketing
Communication

8. How often do you use the internet?

Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Yearly

9. What is the main factor of choosing your internet service provider?

Price of the internet service
Preference
Advertisement
10.What is the price range do you currently pay for internet service per month?
$70-$85
$85-$100
$100-$130
$130-$200
$200 or over
11.How fast is the internet?
1Mbps (Mega Bytes per Second)
2Mbps
3Mbps
4Mbps
12.Do you experience any problem(s) with the internet connections at times?
Yes
No
13.If you do experience any problems, please state the problem(s) you face.
14.How often do you face these problems?
Daily| Weekly|Monthly| Yearly
15.If the price for your internet was $60 a month for 1MBPS(Mega Bytes per
Second), you would purchase
1Mbps |2Mbps| 3Mbps| 4Mbps
16.If prices increase from $60 a month for 1MBPS, check how many MBPS you
would purchase at each of these prices.
At $100: 1Mbps |2Mbps| 3Mbps| 4Mbps
At $120: 1Mbps |2Mbps| 3Mbps| 4Mbps

Page 29 of 33

Interviews

1. What methods do you employ to attract customers?

LIME

Karib Cable

Advertisement
Cheap rates
Specials
Sponsoring big events
Fast internet
Other
2. What factors affect your supply of internet services?

LIME
Speed of internet
Cost of Production
Use of technology
Price of substitutes
Taxation/Subsidy

Page 30 of 33

Karib Cable

LIME AND Karib Cable Promotions

Karib Cable:

LIME:

Page 31 of 33

Introduction
Acknowledgement
Aims and Objectives
Methods of investigation
Presentation of data
Analysis and Interpretation of data
Finding
Recommendations
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendices

Page.1
Page.1
Page.2
Page.2
Page.3
Page.20
Page.23
Page.24
Page.25
Page.26
Page.27

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