What is the availability of broadband internet access in SP? Cable or DSL? How about cell phone coverage?

Digicell provides access to cell phones now. For more on Digicell see http://www.digicell.bz. DSL is in and is priced below. There are several satellite carriers, Starband among them. Lots of wireless in San Pedro. Not citywide however.

Cell phones have very good coverage across the entire country and you can now access the internet on your cell phone so it's not a stretch to WiFi. If anything, Belize has kept up well on the wireless side, if access only cost what it did in the US.

I've been all over the country from PG to Benque and BC to Corozal and out on the waters from North to South and have experienced very few outages. I even had friends working at the Caracol site that I was able to call as far back as 2002. I was even able to get access on the water from Livingston, Guatemala. Things have improved over the last few years.

You need a GSM cell phone in Belize. T-Mobile and some of Cingular handle GSM. You'll probably want to get a local SIM/Prepaid card. It's cheaper than roaming on a US handset.

You'll also need to have your US carrier unblock the SIM connection so you can use the local one.

Regarding cell coverage on the mainland, this from a friend:

live in PG and drive to Belmopan and Belize City alot. I lose signal about 4 miles outside of PG, pick it up again a couple of miles outside Independence. Lose it again and then no signal until just outside of Dangriga. Then I do not get signal until just before the roundabout into Belmopan. It is alot better if I bring my old bag phone, but is only good in the car as it is not portable. Areas between Belize City and Belmopan are much better, but once you get out towards Scotland Half Moon. Radius of digital signal is only about 5 miles radius of the tower.
Lots of the country have no signal, except the major cities.

BTL DSL Rates

Lite
64K up
128K down
$100 monthly
$200 install

Deluxe
128K up
256K down
$179 monthly
$200 install

Pro
256K up
512K down
$300 monthly
$200 install

Ultima
512K up
1mb down
$500 monthly
$200 install