Find Telecommunication expertise in Barbados

The telecommunications sector in Barbados has shown considerable growth since the 1990s, and has continued to grow steadily since the turn of the century. In 2005 the contribution to GDP from the telecommunications sector was 5.8%.

The main telecommunication service provider in Barbados is the Cable & Wireless-owned company LIME. LIME is a complete telecommunications provider, offering landline, internet, mobile phone, and entertainment packages. Other internet service providers on the island include Telebarbados and Sunbeach who also offer mobile phone subscriptions. Digicel Barbados is another prominent mobile phone service provider on the island.

The Government of Barbados Telecommunications Unit is a key figure in the telecommunications sector of the country. The Telecommunications Unit aims to assist Barbados is becoming a centre of excellence for information technology and telecommunications in the Caribbean, in accordance with the FTC and Telecommunications act.

The regulatory body for telecommunications in Barbados is the Fair Trading Commission (FTC). The primary role of the FTC is to enforce policies established under the Telecommunications Act. The FTC is responsible for regulating competition between telecommunications carriers and service providers, ensuring that the interests of consumers are protected.

The most notable modern educational reform system in place in Barbados is the Education Sector Enhancement Programme (ESEP), also known as EduTech 2000.  The programme, worth USD$ 213 million programme is co-financed by theGovernment of Barbados, the Inter-American Development Bank, and theCaribbean Development Bank. The role of the ESEP is to assist in the development of Barbados by educating younger generations. The programme assists schools in repairing and upgrading the existing ICT systems, as well as integrating all new available products.

Landline and mobile phone penetration in Barbados is particularly high compared to other commonwealth countries. According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report there are 1,068 mobile phone subscriptions and 529 fixed telephone lines for every 1000 people in the population, giving Barbados a rating of 44 and 10 respectively out of 144 countries included in the report (2013).

Barbados also has one of the most internet-savvy populations in the Commonwealth, shown by the countries high internet use and broadband penetration statistics. In 2013 73% of people in Barbados were internet users.  Fixed broadband internet subscriptions for the same year covered 23.5% of the population, while mobile broadband subscriptions were held by 36.4% of the population. The country has a high international bandwidth speed, averaging at 69.5 Kilobytes per second per user (2013).