A roundup of ICT/technology news from across the Caribbean region during the period Monday 3 March to Sunday 9 March 2014.
Monday, 3 March 2014
Copper Wire Stolen From BTC
Bahamas – POLICE are on the hunt for a man who allegedly stole copper wire from the Bahamas Telecommunication Company on Wednesday… more
ICT ministers meet in London to discuss future of cyber-governance
Regional – The first-ever Commonwealth ICT Ministers Forum is taking place in London at which an agreement is expected on a strategy for advancing broadband across the 53-country membership… more
Technology Matters: Crowdfunding your business dreams
Regional – Five Tips to Using the Internet to Fund Your Startup Idea. In working with entrepreneurs and startups around the region, by far the main grievance aired is that they are not enough options to raise money to fund their startup dreams… more
LIME and Ericsson partner to deliver enhanced customer experience
Saint Kitts and Nevis – Telecommunications company LIME has entered into an exclusive managed services agreement (MSA) with global provider… more
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Readers Say CWC Gained Most From BTC Deal
Bahamas – The majority of voters in The Tribune’s online poll say Cable and Wireless (CWC) benefited the most from the government’s recent BTC deal… more
Digicel Celebrating 10 years and counting
Cayman Islands – On Tuesday, March 4, Digicel marks 10 years of operations in the Cayman Islands… more
Digicel Jamaica reports strong growth in data and 4G subscribers
Jamaica – Digicel Jamaica is reporting strong double-digit growth in data revenues and data plan subscribers over the last quarter ending December 2013… more
Gov’t closer to implementing number portability
Jamaica – The Jamaican government says it is on track to implement number portability for mobile phones within another eight to nine months… more
LIME says theft of copper cables increased last year
Jamaica – Telecommunications company LIME says it has experienced significant increase in copper cable theft over the past three years; moving from 48 incidents in 2011 at a loss of J$13.5 million; to 56 incidents in 2012 totaling J$23.8 million; and 55 incidents in 2013 resulting in losses at a staggering J$38.3 million… more
OAS assisting Jamaica to fight cyber crimes
Jamaica – A team from the Organisation of American States (OAS) is scheduled to visit Jamaica from March 17 to 19, to conduct a series of stakeholder consultations, aimed at assisting the Government to develop a Cyber Security Strategy and Policy… more
Digital Jam 3.0 Mobile Apps Oscars
Regional – While several films competed for the Oscars in Hollywood, “Crimebot” a mobile App to map crime hotspots and notify users of crimes happening nearby, won the Grand Prize at the Digital Jam 3.0 competition… more
TSTT selects Redknee to enhance 4G services, customer care
Trinidad and Tobago – Redknee Solutions, a provider of business-critical billing and charging software, has announced that TSTT (Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago), a communications service provider in the Americas, is leveraging Redknee’s converged billing and customer care service to enhance its LTE experience for subscribers… more
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Project Green Machine Launches with Delivery of Recycled Computers to BVI’s Isabella Morris Primary School
British Virgin Islands – Fresh Mango, one of the leading IT companies in the British Virgin Islands, has founded Project Green Machine (www.greenmachineproject.com) in association with the Rotary Club Sunrise of Road Town to ‘recycle, repair and repurpose‘ broken and unwanted computer equipment with the goal of improving access to computers and technology for the BVI’s school children… more
Internet advertising and trade mark infringement
Regional – SINCE 2010, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) and the national courts of various European Union countries, including the United Kingdom, have been quite busy handling trials and rendering judgments on the issue of trade mark infringement by Google and/or advertisers who used signs that are identical or similar to the trade marks of registered proprietors as keywords in internet advertising… more
Thursday, 6 March 2014
Multi-Million Dollar ICT Initiative To Be Launched Friday
Antigua and Barbuda – The Ministry of Telecommunications, Science and Technology will on Friday, March 07th launch a huge partnership with LIME on a new, multi-million dollar ICT initiative called the HUMAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP and ASSISTIVE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGIES (HEART) project… more
Webshop Gaming ‘To Be Regularised By July 1’
Bahamas – THE Government will regularise and tax webshop gaming by July 1, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe announced yesterday… more
Barbadian Software Developers Win Major Prize in Regional Competition
Barbados – An app developed by a Barbadian team has taken the top prize in the Expert Developers category of the Digital Jam 3.0 competition. The prize was awarded on Sunday 2nd March in Kingston, Jamaica at a conference dubbed, Get Up, Start-up… more
Brand new CCT coming on March 15 following $10M investment
British Virgin Islands – CCT Global Communications has announced that it will complete a make-over on March 15 following a $10M investment by just over a thousand local investors… more
Haiti – Economy : Signing of a bilateral agreement on ICT
Haiti – Patrick Attie, President of the Association for the Development of Information Technology and Communication of Haiti (AHTIC), accompanied by Claude Apaid, Secretary of AHTIC, signed a cooperation agreement with Rosario Sang President of the (Cámara de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación de la República Dominicana – Cámara TIC), which was accompanied by Jaime Angeles, secretary of that organization… more
Government seeking single regulator for ICT sector
Jamaica – Jamaica says it has secured US$300,000 from the Inter-American Development Bank (UIDB) for the recruitment of a consultant as the island moves towards establishing a single regulator for its information and communications technology (ICT) sector… more
Jamaica secures IDB funds to assist in regulating ICT sector
Jamaica – Jamaica says it has secured US$300,000 from the Inter-American Development Bank (UIDB) for the recruitment of a consultant as the island moves towards establishing a single regulator for its information and communications technology (ICT) sector… more
Metal thieves again strike LIME in Hellshire
Jamaica – Brazen thieves, early Thursday morning, removed freshly-replaced copper-wire cables from LIME facilities along the Hellshire main road in St Catherine… more
Percentage of population with access to ‘Net’ increases — UN report
Jamaica – A total of 46.5 per cent of Jamaica’s over 2.7 million inhabitants have access to the Internet, a massive jump from the 31.5 per cent reported in 2011, according to a recently released report from the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development… more
Search on for chief information officer for e-government agency
Jamaica – THE Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining will be recruiting a chief information officer to oversee administration of the newly established e-government (e-gov) agency… more
Commonwealth ICT ministers agree on common approach for governance of cyberspace
Regional – Commonwealth ICT Ministers have adopted a Commonwealth cybergovernance model to guide national policy development of their national cyberspace… more
St. Kitts and Nevis to review telecommunications sector
Saint Kitts and Nevis – The state of the telecommunications sector in St. Kitts and Nevis will be assessed in the coming months by officials from the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) in collaboration with the Department of Statistics… more
Digicel makes it F1RST
Trinidad and Tobago – Zen nightclub was transformed into an exciting and interactive Experience Zone on the occasion of the launch of F1RST’s mobile app on February 18… more
Near Field Communications is the new age ‘Midas Touch’
Regional – IN today’s world, technology is everywhere. In most cases, technology has made life simpler and has changed the way we communicate and interact with each other on a daily basis. When it comes to mobile phone technology, Near Field Communications (NFC) is taking off at an increasing rate… more
Friday, 7 March 2014
‘Hostile measures’ – CCT claims competitors are trying to ‘wipe it out’ after failing to buy it out
British Virgin Islands – Claiming that players in the local telecoms market have tried unsuccessfully to purchase their company, two major shareholders and board members of CCT Global Communications said they are bracing for more “hostile” treatment… more
Hackers continue to target Cayman bank accounts
Cayman Islands – Financial Crime officers are warning people not to send their bank details over email after hackers again tried to raid Cayman bank accounts… more
Digicel Aims For 92% Broadband Penetration
Jamaica – Digicel Jamaica has already poured $13 billion into the development of its 4G network over three years, investments that have delivered 80 per cent mobile broadband penetration… more
WhatsApp poses threat to local mobile providers
Jamaica – LOCAL mobile providers are remaining silent on whether they will be allowing the full WhatsApp’s messenger service on their platforms… more
CANTO Weekly Newsletter – BNAmericas: 03/07/14
Regional – The information presented and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of CANTO and/or its members… more
CARICOM Heads meet to create single ICT space
Regional – CARICOM Heads of Government, inclusive of President Donald Ramotar, will meet next week in St Vincent and the Grenadines for two days, when that island nation will host the 25th Inter-sessional Meeting beginning on Monday, with a focus on Information Communication Technology (ICT)… more
Digicel Interconnect Issues Resolved
Saint Kitts and Nevis – Digicel St. Kitts & Nevis would like to confirm that the issue of the interconnect calls to other local carriers, has been resolved… more
Digicel Resolving Interconnect Issues
Saint Kitts and Nevis – Digicel St. Kitts and Nevis is aware that our customers are currently unable to terminate calls on other local networks & apologize for this inconvenience… more
LIME Press Release
Saint Kitts and Nevis – LIME wishes to advise all of its Valued Customers that the interconnection between LIME and Digicel is currently down, due to technical difficulties currently being experienced on Digicel’s network… more
Saturday, 8 March 2014
Haiti – Technology : Digital TV, technological change nationally
Haiti – Recently, the National Telecommunications Council (CONATEL), as part of its awareness campaign on the transition from analogue to digital television in Haiti, leading to technological change nationally conducted a tour across the ten departments geographic of the country, traveling to Cap Haitien to Gonaives, Saint-Marc and Jacmel… more
Digital opportunities open as St Lucia launches internet exchange point
Saint Lucia – Saint Lucia celebrated its 35th year of independence with a bold step toward improving the quality of Internet services for its citizens… more
Driving Caribbean innovation: CTU calls for new approaches to old challenges
Regional – One of the greatest challenges facing the Caribbean is getting people to believe in the value of ideas,” said Bernadette Lewis, Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU)… more
Caribbean Telecom Union Launches Workshops to Increase Technology Innovation
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – One of the greatest challenges facing the Caribbean is getting people to believe in the value of ideas,” said Bernadette Lewis, secretary general of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU)… more
Sunday, 9 March 2014
Columbus cuts call rates
Jamaica – Columbus Business Solutions has (CBS) cut its fixed-line call rates for business customers… more
‘Digicel’s tier 3 data centre critical to logistics hub success’ – Hylton
Jamaica – During a recent tour of Digicel’s Tier III Data Centre, the Honourable Anthony Hylton, Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce said that Information Communication Technology (ICT) would be a critical part of the technology infrastructure needed to make Jamaica’s global logistics hub a success… more
LIME snatches 7 major advertising awards
Regional – Telecommunications firm LIME, pulled off a big haul at the American Advertising Awards (ADDY Awards) 2014… more
Image credit: Mars Hill Church (flickr); Wikipedia; Wikipedia; Wikipedia
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