Also known as the Spice Isle and world famous tourist destination, Grenada has one of the most well developed telecoms and ICT sectors in the Caribbean region, and more so the Eastern Caribbean.  In this the latest instalment of our Know Your Neighbours series, ISP and Network Infrastructure professional, Brent McIntosh, sheds some light on the telecoms and ICT space is like in Grenada; how the country is leveraging telecoms and ICT; and some of emerging ICT-related trends and opportunities there.

 

This episode is also available in Apple iTunes, Google Play Music and on Stitcher!

Located in the Lesser Antilles, or Eastern Caribbean, between Trinidad and Tobago, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the multi-island state of Grenada is famously known as the ‘Spice Isle’, due its longstanding production of spices, such as nutmeg, mace, turmeric, cinnamon and cloves, to name a few. Grenada is also popular tourist destination, especially for the well-heeled traveller, with its world famous Grand Anse Beach and ecotourism attractions.

Although it could be basking its reputation for spices and tourism, Grenada is becoming a force in the Caribbean ICT and telecoms space, and enjoys some of the fastest Internet speeds in the Eastern Caribbean, although its terrain is quite rugged and its population is around 110,000. To its credit, the country has a fully liberalised telecoms sector for almost 20 years, and a well-performing Internet Exchange Point, which it could be argued has a key driver behind the strides the country has been able to make, when compared with others countries in the region. However, to understand how and why Grenada has been able to achieve what it has with respect to telecoms and ICT, we need someone who knows the country’s telecoms and ICT space from the inside out.

 

Interview guest and questions

Brent McIntosh

Based in Grenada, Brent McIntosh is an Internet Service Provider and Network Infrastructure professional with expertise in Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. He considers himself an IPv6 and Internet Exchange Point (IXP) Evangelist, and is IP Network Architect/Consultant, as well as a certified IPv6 Forum Engineer and Trainer (Gold).

Brent has over 15 years’ experience in telecoms and ICT, having worked extensively for some of the major carriers in the Caribbean region. Currently, he is President of the IPv6 Forum in Grenada, and a Partner in the firm, Web Internet Telecoms, which provides consulting and a broad range of technology-related support services.

Brent comes across as someone with boundless enthusiasm – especially of the subjects of iPv6 and IXP! In our conversation with him, he shared several gems and insights on not only Grenada’s telecoms and ICT sector, but also the country’s business and entrepreneurship space. However, no discussion these days would be complete without mention of COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus. At the time of the interview, the Government of Grenada had instituted an island-wide lockdown, in order to lower the rate of infection. Nevertheless, other questions posed included the following:

  1. How developed is the telecoms and ICT sector in Grenada ? How robust is the competition in the market? Are telecoms and ICT services affordable in Grenada?
  2. How IPv6-ready are Caribbean countries?
  3. What are some of the things the Grenada Internet Exchange has been doing right that other countries could consider emulating?
  4. To what degree is the Government and private sector in Grenada leveraging ICT?
  5. What is it like being an entrepreneur in Grenada ? What do you think about the country’s start-up environment/ start-up culture?
  6. If someone outside Grenada wants to do business in Grenada, what are key steps that you would recommend?
  7. What might be some of the idiosyncrasies of Grenada, and doing business in Grenada, that a foreigner might need to grapple with?
  8. What are some of the tech-related or tech business related-trends you are seeing in the Grenada ?
  9. What do you believe are the strengths of the ICT/tech space in Grenada ?
  10. What are some of the challenges Grenada might have to address to improve ICT there?
  11. What are some of the ICT/tech-related opportunities that you see in Grenada ?

 

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Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits:  Wikimedia Commons;  Wikimedia Commons;  Skybluesrich (Pixabay);  Lee Coursey (flickr);  B McIntosh

Music credit:  Ray Holman

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