Most countries making significant headway 

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Most Caribbean countries are reporting significant progress in their fibre optic infrastructure in bridging the digital divide.

In fact, most have carried out improvement work costing billions of dollars to boost broadband services, reduce the digital divide and advance networks towards 5G.

Here Our Today examines some of the work already done in a number of these Caribbean countries, namely Jamaica, Cayman, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Haiti, based on information from bnamericas.com.

JAMAICA

The Jamaican government signed three contracts to develop the GovNet public sector broadband network.

A US$895,996 contract was signed with the National Works Agency (NWA) for fibre optic expansion in the Kingston Metropolitan Area.

In addition, it was agreed to purchase active network equipment from IQtek Solutions for US$2.69 million and with Cable & Wireless for the provision of equipment worth US$251,577, reported the government’s Jamaica Information Service.

The government also announced that it had invested more than J$720 million (US$4.66 million) in technology and infrastructure for the justice department.

In addition, IDB is preparing technical cooperation to support the development of a national broadband plan for Jamaica. Under the US$400,000 project, feasibility studies will be conducted and best practices of the South Korean government’s policies, strategies and technologies will be explored.

CAYMAN ISLANDS

The Cayman Islands government contracted Grant Thornton to conduct a feasibility study for the modernisation of subsea infrastructure.

The report, which will be produced by Pioneer Consulting, will be used to decide if the government will continue with an investment plan in submarine cables.

The investment in a new submarine cable is part of the work plan of the government for 2022-24.

PUERTO RICO

Local newspaper El Nuevo Día reported that the Starlink (SpaceX) broadband satellite service is now available in Puerto Rico.

Starlink offers satellite broadband services for US$99 a month. In the Latin American region, it has commercial services in Mexico and Chile. In addition, it is authorised to operate in Argentina, Peru and Brazil.

CUBA 

Cuban state telco Etecsa said problems with its datacenter infrastructure are continuing.    

Last Friday, the company said “technical failures” in the datacenter generated interruptions in the @nauta and @enet mail services, as well as the Enzona financial platform and some websites.

Last weekend, the company announced that the institutional sites had been restored, but work was continuing to re-establish the rest of the services.

HAITI

The Inter-American Development Bank has a US$1.5-million project in preparation to support Haitian startup, Reloadly.

Reloadly aims to help bridge the digital divide by connecting mobile users with a variety of service providers in the digital economy.