A roundup of the ICT/technology news from across the Caribbean region during the period Monday 25 June to Sunday 1 July 2012.
Monday, 25 June 2012
BTC union ‘appalled’ by investigation
Bahamas – Workers at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) are “appalled” by the ongoing investigation into what caused a network meltdown last week… more
Digicel says 500,000 on new rate plan
Jamaica – Mobile giant Digicel claimed that half-a-million customers have already chosen its new reduced rate plan… more
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
CARICOM Open for Business: Pushing Projects for Connect the Americas Summit
Guyana – The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), in preparing for the one of its kind Connect the Americas Summit, set for Panama in July, is sending a strong and clear message to private sector and investment organizations that they are ready with viable, creative, cross-cutting regional and national development projects for funding… more
Govt. Fiber Optic Cable for testing in August
Guyana – The Guyana Government’s LTE Fiber Optic Cable programme is currently some 90 per cent complete. Testing of the network will commence early August… more
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
URCA presses BTC for report on outage
Bahamas – The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) said yesterday it has given the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) until July 9 to produce a detailed report on a network outage that affected thousands of landline and cellular customers across the country last week Monday… more
4G mobile lands in Jamaica
Jamaica – Digicel finally launched its long-awaited 4G network on Monday, promising to transform mobile communications with high-speed Internet access… more
Digicel 4G Mobile Is Here!
Jamaica – Digicel has announced the launch of its brand new 4G Mobile network which will see customers all across Jamaica enjoying a completely unique mobile experience with reliable, superfast internet speeds… more
Digital Jam 2.0: Offering Real hope for Jobs in Virtual Spaces
Jamaica – Tapping into Jamaica’s growing appetite for all things online, a new initiative hopes to tackle the country’s rising unemployment by connecting virtual job seekers with opportunities in the real world… more
Thursday, 28 June 2012
87,000 Digicell Customers Risk Disconnection
Belize – All unregistered cellular phone accounts will be disconnected at noon on Friday, July 13. The final deadline for the registration of cellular phone accounts is roughly two weeks away and of Digicell’s 190,000 accounts, only 103,000 have a registered owner… more
Digicel boss reportedly receives big payout
Jamaica – Following on the announcement earlier this month that the Digicel Group Limited grew its operating profit to a record US$1.08 billion, reports are coming from international sources that its owner is reaping a significant return on his investment… more
Jamaicans urged to expose lotto scammers
Jamaica – Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Devon Watkis is imploring Jamaicans to expose lotto scammers, as they are detrimental to the country’s image and are affecting persons at home and abroad… more
LIME Techs Get Avaya Training
Saint Lucia – Following the announcement last year that LIME had achieved Platinum Partner Status from Avaya – a global leader in business communications systems, software and services – the company embarked on a range of initiatives designed to help it better serve the needs of small and medium businesses. LIME has since moved to strengthen its capacity to satisfy the needs of its SME customers… more
Friday, 29 June 2012
CTEX Datacenter construction in full gear
Curacao – CTEX’s ‘CU-1’ the first of 4 high-end Tier-IV designed datacenters is coming out of the ground at record speed… more
GT&T’s Board to accept CEO’s resignation
Guyana – The Board of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) is by Friday midday expected to accept the resignation of the company’s Chief Executive Officer Yog Mahadeo… more
GT&T head resigns, four sacked
Guyana – Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, Yog Mahadeo, has resigned. News of his resignation came yesterday… more
Updated: Yog’s out, Joe’s back as GT&T’s head
Guyana – The majority American-owned main telecommunications provider- Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T)- on Friday announced a major top-management shake-up following a detailed audit… more
Digicel filed court action before LIME announced new rate
Jamaica – Telecoms giant Digicel yesterday pointed out that its application for a judicial review of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) setting of a mobile termination rate (MTR) was filed on June 13, two days before its competitor LIME launched its $2.99 rate… more
Digital Jam 2.0: Creating new job opportunities for Jamaica’s youth
Jamaica – The government of Jamaica, together with the World Bank and in partnership with the Jamaican telecommunications companies Flow and Lime, the Development Bank of Jamaica, the Jamaica National Building Society, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on Thursday launched the Digital Jam 2.0., a digital market and job fair that will be open until this Saturday… more
Samsung hopes to make business inroads in Jamaica
Jamaica – Korean electronics firm, Samsung, says it’s looking to displace Blackberry as the number one smart phone in the Jamaican market… more
Study Shows Data Storage, Sharing Issues Hamper Disaster Mitigation Efforts
Jamaica – Insufficient storage and exchange of critical information are hampering some Caribbean territories from adequately reducing disaster risk… more
Tax Officials Reveal System Breach By Online Hacker
Jamaica – Jamaican tax officials have confirmed that one of their computer systems was hacked, but have given the assurance that sensitive information concerning taxpayers was not compromised… more
‘Techies’ Compete To Create Apps At Digital Jam 2.0
Jamaica – Jamaican youth were yesterday given the opportunity to enter the virtual economy, as the Digital Jam 2.0 Marketplace and Job Fair got under way at the Jamaica Conference Centre… more
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Cell rates may drop
Barbados – Cellphone and Internet users in Barbados finally have some good news coming their way… more
GT&T undergoes major shake-up
Guyana – There were serious lapses in the internal financial controls of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), says outgoing Chief Executive Officer, Yog Mahadeo. Mahadeo’s shocking resignation was accepted on Thursday by the GT&T’s Board of Directors following a damning auditor’s report that found internal accounting systems were bypassed… more
Sunday, 1 July 2012
OUR Fears Mobile Monopoly
Jamaica – It was the fragile state of competition in Jamaica’s mobile phone market and concern over possible reversion to monopoly status that led the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) to introduce an interim call-termination rate, according to documents perused by Sunday Business… more
Image credit: News stand (Gary Thomson, flickr)
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