{"id":4142,"date":"2012-06-20T08:38:46","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T13:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=4142"},"modified":"2012-06-25T06:20:31","modified_gmt":"2012-06-25T11:20:31","slug":"karib-cable-and-flow-can-these-two-companies-change-the-barbados-internet-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2012\/06\/karib-cable-and-flow-can-these-two-companies-change-the-barbados-internet-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Karib Cable and Flow: can these two companies change the Barbados Internet landscape?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Within weeks of each other, Karib Cable and Columbus International announced their imminent entry into the Barbados telecom market. Both are planning to offer triple play, but considering their track records in other countries, what might be in store for Barbados?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Table 2: 2012 NRIs for the top 10 ranked countries and select Caribbean countries (Source: WEF\/INSEAD)<\/p><\/div>\n

For those of you who are regular readers of ICT Pulse, particularly our Snapshot series<\/em>, you might have noticed an anomaly for one of the countries: Barbados. Barbados, with a population of approximately 287,000 and an estimated per capita GDP, of USD\u00a015,000, tends to be highly ranked in a number of ICT-related international assessments. For example, in the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) 2012<\/a>, produced by the World Economic Forum (WEF)<\/a> and INSEAD<\/a>, which measures network readiness, Barbados was ranked 35th out of 147 countries . Moreover, it was the third highest ranked countries in the Americas, behind the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

However, key deficiencies the assessment highlighted\u00a0in Barbados were the high prices for broadband services, along with the limited competition in telephony and Internet services. In addition to affecting its global ranking, these limitations have been affecting the country’s competitiveness, although it has been able to create a favourable business\/investment environment.<\/p>\n

When that GITR was completed, there were three Internet ISPs in Barbados: LIME<\/a>, Sunbeach Communications<\/a>\u00a0and Telebarbados<\/a>. However, as our most recent Snapshot of Internet speed and spend<\/a> and broadband affordability<\/a> indicated, granted that the focus was on LIME and Sunbeach Communications,<\/p>\n