A roundup of ICT/technology news from across the Caribbean region during the period Monday 1 September to Sunday 7 September 2014.
Monday, 1 September 2014
BTC’s $56m Capital Spend ‘Largest Ever’
Bahamas – The Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) $56 million capital investment spend for this year is its largest ever, as it moves to address dropped mobile calls and prepare for this market’s full liberalisation… more
BTC to offer TV package by spring 2015
Bahamas – Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BTC) expects to have a television service on offer by the end of March 2015, which will “be better and give better coverage” to customers than that offered by Cable Bahamas, Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) CEO Phil Bentley said on Friday… more
‘Champagne Pops’ On Telecoms Merger Nod
Bahamas – A Bahamian telecommunications provider’s principal is preparing to “pop champagne bottles”, after the Government finally approved a deal that will unleash $50 million in investment and the creation of up to 100 local jobs… more
CWC CEO Phil Bentley outlines the new BTC – $170M investment upgrade toward world class network
Bahamas – In an address to attendees at the August 29th announcement of the majority economic interest in BTC moving to The Bahamas government and the people of The Bahamas, Phil Bentley, CEO of Cable and Wireless Communications, (CWC) foreshadowed new initiatives and plans to transform BTC into a world class telecommunications company… more
Gov’t Wants IPO To Bahamians By 2nd Mobile Firm
Bahamas – Prime Minister Perry Christie has indicated his government wants the winning bidder for the second celluar licence to offer shares to the Bahamian public, something that might force it to follow suit with the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC)… more
Remarks by the Prime Minister at BTC majority shareholding transfer luncheon
Bahamas – It gives me great pleasure to be part of this historic assembly of partners and supporting cast, committed to advancing the overall good of the Bahamian people… more
Rime of the ancient operator: GT&T looking to remove fixed line albatross with price hike
Guyana – Fixed line incumbent Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) has appeared before the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to justify a proposed series of price hikes to its fixed line services… more
BPO Firms Struggle To Fill Vacancies – Study
Jamaica – Based on the HEART Trust/NTA Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Industry Sector Study published earlier this year, 68 per cent of the BPO companies surveyed said they had vacancies, with 64 per cent reporting that they had difficulties filling them… more
Digicel Boss Wants Jamaican Challenge
Jamaica – Barry O’Brien, chief executive officer of Digicel, said Jamaica should seek to learn from social-media campaigns like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in order to gain support for local causes… more
JAMPRO leads local delegation to major ICT Summit in the United States
Jamaica – JAMPRO will be leading a delegation of local ICT leaders to the United States based Gartner Outsourcing and Strategic Partnership Summit in an effort to raise Jamaica’s profile as a nearshore destination for business process outsourcing (BPO)… more
Look To ICT For Growth, Say Experts
Jamaica – Despite noted growth in the agriculture and tourism sectors, it appears that the future of jobs in Jamaica will be in sectors closely linked to information and communications technology (ICT)… more
Scotiabank named World’s Best Consumer Internet Bank in St. Kitts & Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis – Scotiabank has been recognized by Global Finance Magazine as the Best Consumer Internet Bank in St. Kitts & Nevis for 2014. In total, Scotiabank received recognition in 22 countries across the Caribbean and Central America… more
UTS completes 200MB Fiber circuit for Coastguard.
Sint Maarten – UTS has completed the delivery of 200 Megabyte (MB) fiber optic cable circuit to the Coastguard headquarters in Simpson Bay… more
Digicel applies for pay-TV concession in T&T
Trinidad and Tobago – Trinidad & Tobago-based mobile operator Digicel has applied for a pay-TV licence, the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad & Tobago (TATT) has confirmed… more
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Bahamas regains control of telecoms company
Bahamas – Government has regained control of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC)… more
Boss Calling BTC Into Line On 20% Sales Fall
Bahamas – A well-known retailer yesterday blasted the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) for phone line woes that slashed sales in key product lines by up to 20 per cent during its “Christmas season” equivalent… more
BTC Should Not Be Given Any Favours
Bahamas – EDITOR, The Tribune. According to a front page story in The Nassau Guardian on Saturday, 30 August, entitled “BTC Deal Finalised”, Mr Phil Bentley is encouraging the Government to be flexible with BTC needs for duty concessions and foreign work permits… more
Cellular Bidder Promises IPO To Local Investors
Bahamas – A likely bidder for the second cellular phone licence yesterday pledged it would offer shares in the company to Bahamian investors via an initial public offering (IPO) should it prove successful… more
Global Technology Accelerates Access to Broadband in the Republic of Guyana with Eutelsat IP Easy Service
Guyana – Global Technology today announced it has selected the IP Easy satellite broadband service provided by Eutelsat Communications (Paris:ETL) to accelerate access to broadband across the Republic of Guyana. Eutelsat operates IP Easy in the region using the high performance EUTELSAT 8 West A satellite… more
CANTO: Telecommunications Power at Play in the Bahamas
Regional – Atlantis Paradise Hotel in the Bahamas was the venue for CANTO’s 30th Annual Conference & Trade Exhibition where the organization’s pearl anniversary was celebrated in grand style… more
Caribbean, Latin American tech community gathers for CaribNOG-LACNIC meeting
Regional – One of the largest gatherings of the Caribbean Internet community will take place in Curacao in a few weeks… more
TelEm Group International voice and data circuits back online.
Sint Maarten – TelEm Group technicians and engineers have fully restored operation of the company’s international voice and data switch following a fire incident Monday… more
Parent makes shock find on child’s laptop Spyware taking photos
Trinidad and Tobago – Chairman of the board of directors of the T&T Amateur Radio League (TTARL) Julien Dedier is calling on Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh and the president of the T&T Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA)) Davanand Sinanan to investigate concerns that students who use laptops supplied to them from the Government are being spied on… more
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
BTC Signs Exclusive Baha Mar Mobile Deal
Bahamas – The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) has partnered with Baha Mar to provide mobile services for its thousands of guests through the installation of a multi-million dollar Distributed Antenna System (DAS) covering the entire property… more
Cable Bahamas crews repair fibre optic cable damaged by lightning strike in southwest New Providence
Bahamas — At 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, September 2, Cable Bahamas identified an interruption of services in the southwestern portion of New Providence… more
Big moves in Cayman’s telecommunications
Cayman Islands – Bermuda based Key-Tech, the parent company of Logic, has purchased WestStar and Cayman 27… more
S-T-E-M spells Cayman’s careers of the future
Cayman Islands – Steady growth of Cayman’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ) depends on a pool of qualified young Caymanians to take the jobs of the future… more
iNet selects Newtec for broadband deployment in Guyana
Guyana – iNet Communications and Newtec announced the launch of a new high speed broadband service for Guyana, which enables download speeds of 6Mbps… more
Digicel surprises one millionth customer with $1m
Jamaica – WHEN 22-year-old Kellyon Smith activated a two-day data plan on her phone, she did not expect to be collecting a cheque worth $1 million along with a brand-new smartphone from Digicel Jamaica… more
Trinidad and Tobago to launch mobile NP on 26 Feb 2015
Trinidad and Tobago – Trinidad and Tobago telecoms authority TATT confirmed that mobile-to-mobile number portability will be officially launched on 26 February 2015… more
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Cable Bahamas suffers from lightning strike
Bahamas – Five hundred and sixty-eight Cable Bahamas subscribers experienced an outage of their cable TV, telephone and Internet services in areas including South Ocean Estates, Mount Pleasant, Serenity and Lyford Cay… more
URCA’s Employee receives Prestigious Engineering Certification
Bahamas – Waldon Russell, a Case Officer and Electrical Engineer with the Utility Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), is now a registrant of the prestigious Engineering Council (EC) of London… more
KeyTech CEO: Cayman TV deal and BTC sale are ‘transformational’
Regional – Telecoms firm KeyTech has bought a TV firm in Cayman — and sold off its stake in BTC for $30 million… more
Minister of TEATT calls urgent meeting with Telecom stakeholders.
Sint Maarten – In light of the latest problems encountered the last two days in our telecommunication systems, Minister Ted Richardson, in charge of Economic affairs, Tourism and Telecommunication, called an urgent meeting with the Bureau of Telecommunication and Post, TELEM Group and UTS. All top executives from the three entities were present in the meeting… more
‘Nothing wrong with laptops’
Trinidad and Tobago – MINISTER of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh said yesterday that there was nothing wrong with the Government-issued laptops, in answer to media reports that spyware or malware was found on a school computer… more
TSTT EVP assures Permanent Secretaries
Trinidad and Tobago – ALTHOUGH the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) incurred a net loss of $505.9 million for the year ended March 31, 2014, its Executive Vice-President of Government and Enterprise Services, Rakesh Goswami, is assuring that blink/bMobile is on course for increasing profits and improving technology… more
Friday, 5 September 2014
Technology demystified
Regional – So IoT is essentially about connecting, managing and controlling things from literally anywhere and is more pervasive than one could imagine… more
Services sector wants e-commerce environment
Trinidad and Tobago – THE Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Services Industries (TTCSI), is calling on the Government to include in the 2015 budget the early passage of the updated Audit and Exchequer Act which it said would allow o5nline payments to and from government entities… more
Saturday, 6 September 2014
A telecommunications licence was issued to iNet over 14 years ago
Guyana – Dear Editor, I would like to clarify some of the issues raised in the sensationally written article published by Kaieteur News on September 4 regarding the circumstances surrounding iNet Communications Inc… more
AG okays release of emails
Trinidad and Tobago – Attorney General Anand Ramlogan has consented to e-mail service provider Google Inc releasing all information from his personal e-mail account to the Integrity Commission as the probe into the Emailgate scandal continues… more
Sunday, 7 September 2014
CWC Pumping US$250m Into LIME Jamaica
Jamaica – Cable and Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is making a renewed effort to turn around the fortunes of subsidiary LIME Jamaica, with a planned investment of US$250 million in the network over the next three years… more
Texting hurting TT business
Trinidad and Tobago – Using technology — whether we are on our mobile phones and tablets or desktop computers at the office — is part of everyday life for many people in Trinidad and Tobago… more
Image credit: Mars Hill Church (flickr); Brands of the World; Wikipedia; Wikipedia; Marketing Magazine
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