| KINGSTON, May 13 (JIS): |
 Jamaica’s
telecommunications sector earned some $50 billion in revenues last
year with $8 billion of that amount going to the Government’s
coffers. Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology, Phillip Paulwell
made the disclosure while speaking in the 2004/05 Sectoral Debate
in Gordon House on Wednesday (May 12).He said that the success of the sector was seen in the country’s tele-density (the number of phones per hundred inhabitants), which, he said, was an important indicator of development. Minister Paulwell noted that in 2000, the tele-density was 30 per cent but that by the end of 2003 it had increased dramatically to 80 per cent. “This has resulted in Jamaica being ranked by the International Telecommunications Union’s Digital Access Index (DAI) (as being) among the countries in the world in the upper Access Index Category. In this region, we are above Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and Costa Rica,” he said. The Minister said that while there have been some achievements there were also challenges. One such challenge, he cited, was in the area of inter-connection and the issue of settlement rates with the United States of America. “We have arrived at the delicate balance between raising settlement rates high enough to benefit the Jamaican economy while lowering termination rates enough to allow sufficient margins to stimulate sustainable investment in the telecoms industry,” he said. Another
challenge, he said was the inability to deliver broadband or high-speed
Internet service at affordable prices to the Jamaican consumer.
At present, he said, that there were only 95,000 Internet accounts,
which he said was despite a 2003 Internet market study, which showed
that awareness of the Internet among Jamaicans over 15 years old
was universal and that 80 per cent of non-users were interested
in becoming users. He
informed that Spectrum Management Authority has been given the responsibility
to prepare recommendations. |
