Laing was addressing the official opening ceremony of the 10th General Conference of Ministers of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) in Nassau.
“From both a technology perspective and a regulatory framework The Bahamas has in place a platform to facilitate its governments intentions with respect to the full development of E-Commerce, E-Trade, E-Education and E-Government,” Laing said.
“These platforms also provide the foundation for the transformation of this economy to that of a 21st Century new knowledge economy,” he added.
Laing said it also promoted that which is embodied in the conference theme “ICT Harmonisation, Enabling Functional Caribbean Integration.”
The CTU’s mission is to “create an environment in partnership with members to optimise returns from ICT resources for the benefit of stakeholders.”
Laing noted that an archipelago like The Bahamas with a service based economy catering to international clients in tourism and financial services is a prime target for the enabling benefits of Information Communications Technologies called ICTs.
“Indeed, it is safe to say that what we have achieved both economically and socially to date in this country would not have been achieved without the growth and development of our nation ICT’s infrastructure,” he said.
Two fibre-optic submarine cables, the two VIC’s systems, Bahamas Domestic Fibre Optic submarine cable network and a arcos network enable The Bahamas to achieve almost full inter-island connection as well as connectivity with 15 other Caribbean and Latin American countries, Laing said.
The varied networks serving The Bahamas have the capacity to carry voice, data Internet and 200 digital television channels. There are approximately 134,000 installed wire lines, 260,000 cellular subscribers using both TDMA and GSM with GPRS facilities, he said.
A third cellular network is in place in hot spots for inbound roaming only. There are 97 bilateral roaming GSM agreements in place with 56 countries with multiple agreements in the Caribbean, he added.
Laing also noted that there are CDMA roaming agreements with Verizon and Sprint in the United States and 45,000 high-speed Internet subscribers giving The Bahamas one of the highest penetration rates in the region.
Telecommunications services in The Bahamas are provided by a number of licensed operators. Telecommunications is governed by the Telecommunications Act of 1999 and The Bahamas Government Telecommunications Sector Policy. It is regulated by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
Autor(en)/Author(s): Lindsay Thompson
Quelle/Source: Caribbean Net News, 09.10.2007
