A roundup of the ICT/technology news from across the Caribbean region during the period Monday 24 September to Sunday 30 September 2012.
Monday, 24 September 2012
BTC Concerned Over URCA’s Regulatory Moves
Bahamas – Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) fears proposals to lower its mobile call termination rate will slash its international revenues by up to $1.5 million annually, reducing its ability to invest in infrastructure and benefit Bahamians… more
BTC’s 2010 Separated Account Audit ‘Qualified’
Bahamas – All key Bahamian communications industry players are opposed to using the Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) historical cost data as the basis to set its future interconnection charges, with the newly-privatised carrier admitting auditors were unable to give its 2010 separated accounts a clean bill of health… more
Flow Brings Subscription Video OnDemand To Jamaican Homes
Jamaica – Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited, operators of Flow and Columbus Business Solutions, is introducing a subscription video-OnDemand service… more
Lotto scammers could be extradited from Jamaica
Jamaica – Lotto scammers in Jamaica may soon be extradited to face charges overseas… more
Montserrat making strides in improving service delivery through ICT
Montserrat – The government of Montserrat is leading the charge to ensure that the island becomes a fully enabled ICT society able to attract high value businesses and jobs for its people… more
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Cell Phone Trade-in Expected to Help Rid Market of 2300 Outdated Models, 250,000 Mobile Phones
Bahamas – BTC customers using cell phones that do little more than handle conversation will be able to trade them in for phones that do just about everything but guarantee happiness with a 10-day trade-in-and-up campaign aimed at ridding The Bahamas of some 2,300 models of antiquated phones… more
AMS-IX To Assume CAR-IX Management And Operations
Curacao – The Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) takes responsibility for the management and operations of the Caribbean Internet Exchange (CAR-IX) and rebrands it to AMS-IX Caribbean… more
Alleged Internet hacker for court today
Jamaica – Ronald Oates, the man believed to be the mastermind of a computer hacking extortion ring, is expected to appear in court today on an additional charge… more
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Copper Thieves Continue to Plague APUA
Antigua & Barbuda – The police are yet again inundated with a number of reports of theft of copper wire from cell sites belonging to Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA)… more
BTC launches unique trade-in offer
Bahamas – BTC customers using cell phones that do little more than handle conversations will be able to trade them in for phones that do just about everything but guarantee happiness, with a 10-day trade-in-and-up campaign aimed at ridding The Bahamas of some 2,300 models of antiquated phones… more
Call Termination Cuts ‘A Beautiful Thing’
Bahamas – A rival telecommunications provider yesterday said it was “100 per cent behind” plans to cut the Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) call termination rates by up to 60 per cent, telling Tribune Business the proposed 2 cents per minute slash for 2013 was “a beautiful thing”… more
Telco Eyes Staff ‘Tripling’ Through 25% Revenue Rise
Bahamas – A niche Bahamian telecommunications operator yesterday said it planned to triple staff numbers by 2012 year-end, as it moves to ‘ramp up’ ahead of an expected 25 per cent year-over-year revenue increase in 2013… more
Columbus Closes Acquisition of TeleBarbados and Tele St. Lucia
Barbados – Columbus International Inc. (“Columbus”) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding shares of TeleBarbados Inc. and Tele St. Lucia Inc… more
Vietnamese mobile operator to launch in Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic – Vietnamese mobile operator Viettel plans to launch mobile voice and internet services in the Dominican Republic, according to press reports… more
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Bahamians Say No To Rise In Cable Price
Bahamas – Bahamians are “primarily against” Cable Bahamas’ proposed price increase, according to the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority’s CEO who was remarking on the corporation’s most recent town hall meeting… more
BTC Targets Early 2013 For System ‘10x Faster’ Than 4G
Bahamas – The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) plans to introduce its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network within the first three months of 2013, the company’s chief executive telling Tribune Business yesterday that the full roll-out would require 12-18 months… more
BTC to launch TV trial early 2013
Bahamas – The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) expects to enter the trial phase of its much-anticipated television product early next year… more
Blink / bmobile telecoms stimulus
Trinidad & Tobago – Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) has taken yet another bold step in its quest to deliver more cost effective, value-added and hassle free services to customers with the re-launch of an enhanced business suite of services… more
Friday, 28 September 2012
BTC To Invest $20-$30m To Bring NGN ‘To Market’
Bahamas – The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) expects to be “well positioned” to win back market share in the fixed-line Internet broadband market via its Next Generation Network (NGN), the company’s chief executive telling Tribune Business it will invest a further $20-$30 million “to bring it to market”… more
Dividends not declared at Telemedia AGM
Belize – Speculation on whether or not dividends will be declared at the tonight’s annual general meeting of Belize Telemedia Limited is over… more
Will BTL Defy CCJ?
Belize – Court says telecom company must wait to issue dividends; Board Chair, Net Vasquez, says company will “deal with agenda” for meeting… more
Scammers didn’t hack systems says LIME
Cayman Islands – In the wake of a text message sent directly to LIME customers’ telephones across Cayman on Wednesday declaring that everyone had won $500,000 from scammers in Thailand, the local phone company said its systems had not been compromised… more
Karib Cable Introduces New Channels
St. Vincent & the Grenadines – HBO Latin America Group (LAG) and Karib Cable formally announced that both Companies have signed an agreement for the transmission of the HBO LAG channels to be broadcasted in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, beginning October 1st… more
Saturday, 29 September 2012
BTC CEO: $42.8 Million Investment in Mobile Upgrades Drives 800% Increase in Data Usage
Bahamas – Customers living, working or vacationing in The Bahamas are texting more, talking less and accessing data at rates and speeds that not long ago would have been the stuff of science fiction, thanks to an 18-month, $42.8 million mobile network upgrade by BTC that has catapulted the local telecom environment ahead of many parts of the world… more
Digicel plan to sell El Salvador interests rejected by regulator
El Salvador – A plan by Denis O’Brien’s Digicel mobile phone group to sell its business in El Salvador to a company owned by wealthy Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim has once again been rejected by the regulator there… more
Sunday, 30 September 2012
GT&T hails former CEO
Guyana – Yog Mahadeo on Friday ended his employment with the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Co. Ltd (GT&T)… more
Intcomex Deal Creates Powerful Sales Network For LIME
Jamaica – Telecoms provider LIME has brokered a deal with American company Intcomex that will expand its local sales outlets for BlackBerry and Samsung smartphones by a multiple of 12… more
Social Media Policy to be in-place by Early Next Year
Jamaica – By early next year there should be a full-fledged social media policy in place, with guidelines for order and professionalism in Government… more
Image credits: Gary Thomson (flickr); The Eleutheran; Jazztell Bahamas; TSTT; Belize Web; CNet
