EDITOR’S NOTE: At the end of April, #infrastruCaribe featured Internet Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in the Caribbean, in our edition 2021-05-04. We do the same in this newsletter. Three Caribbean islands are covered, namely: Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Cayman Islands. Please see our Twitter feed (@infrastruCaribe) for more.
Our headline, taken from the Jamaica Observer, reads: “Jamaican Engineering Genius Leads US Team to Make World Wide Web More Global”. A Jamaican — Dr. Charles Anthony Barnett — leads the technical team at a U.S. satellite service company making the internet more accessible by improving connectivity from even the most remote areas of the world.
Several speakers at the 4th Annual Technical Community Forum called for more to be done to keep critical ICT systems secure, resilient and accessible. While in Jamaica, a third mobile operator — Rock Mobile — prepares their launch to offer underserved communities faster Internet connections, in fulfilment of the terms of their agreement.
At the start of the pandemic, Flow Jamaica experienced a 50 percent increase demand for broadband data services in just two weeks, so the company has had to increase its capapabilies and manage the spike. In Cayman, Flow promises a roll out of fibre internet across most Islands within a year, which will make broadband 100 times faster.