{"id":90523,"date":"2017-01-11T10:04:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T15:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=90523"},"modified":"2017-04-07T19:06:08","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T00:06:08","slug":"4-icttech-developments-caribbean-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2017\/01\/4-icttech-developments-caribbean-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"4 ICT\/tech developments we are likely to see in the Caribbean in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking ahead to 2017, here are some of the big tech\/ICT developments and trends we are likely to see in the Caribbean<\/em>
\nConsistently, tech\/ICT issues that made the headlines or had us talking in 2016 were diverse and interesting: from the liberalisation process in Guyana and the region\u2019s growing focus on call centres and offshore outsourcing, to tracking the changes in Internet download speeds and prices. As we begin to come to grips with what 2017 has to offer, here are four developments we believe will be evident in the Caribbean in this year.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Regulation continues to evolve in the region<\/h3>\n

The Caribbean region as a whole is at an interesting crossroads with respect to telecoms regulation. Some countries that had introduced regulatory policies in the early 2000s are in the throes of overhauling the framework to make it more relevant for today\u2019s landscape. Others that either more recently embarked on the liberalisation process, or are just about to do so, are still to experience and understand the dynamics of those emerging environments.<\/p>\n

It must be emphasised that policy, and by extension regulatory, changes can be a protracted process. However, it is expected that by the end of 2017, the region as a whole will be on a better footing, or at the very least on the path to a better footing, than it currently is at the beginning of 2017.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Network security continue to get attention<\/h3>\n

As noted over the course of 2016, the Caribbean was not immune to network hacking and cybercrime. This year promises to be no different, as globally, all countries continue to grapple with the pervasiveness of the problem. In that regard, it is expected that the efforts \u2013 both by individual countries and by the region as a whole \u2013 to increase awareness among policymakers, and possibly introduce better practices and systems, will take greater shape and become more evident in 2017.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Changing competition dynamic<\/h3>\n

Finally, with two major players, Digicel and Flow, in most telecoms markets across the region, it may be expected that the competitive dynamic between them would have settled by now. Whilst that might be true to some degree,, with Digicel now becoming a quad-play provider in some countries, similar to Flow, by offering fixed-line telephony, mobile\/cellular communications, broadband Internet and subscriber television services, Digicel will be eager to develop market share in the new segments it is now serving. Further, Flow is also under pressure to increase its profitability whilst, at the very least, maintaining the quality of its services.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0More smart gadgets, smarter homes, smarter societies<\/h3>\n

Although smart gadgets may be widely available in local markets across the region, and can be readily imported, this year, a shift in perception is expected. Gadgets will be seen less as individual devices that work in isolation, and more as devices that can work together in system. In that regard, the region is likely to get on board the current fascination with virtual assistants, such as Amazon\u2019s Alexa, Apple\u2019s Siri and Google Home, and also their ability to support a smarter, more automated environment.<\/p>\n

Although by the end of 2017 those threads will not transform Caribbean countries into smart societies, awareness and critical mass are being developed, thereby setting the stage for transformational changes to be realised in the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image credit: \u00a0Pexels<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking ahead to 2017, here are some of the big tech\/ICT developments and trends we are likely to see in the Caribbean Consistently, tech\/ICT issues that made the headlines or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,11,33,18],"tags":[71,53,105,34,12,15],"class_list":["post-90523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caribbean","category-ict-tech","category-lists","category-telecoms-2","tag-businesses","tag-competition","tag-cybercrimecybersecurity","tag-lists-2","tag-regulation","tag-trends","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Android-Tablet-turned-on-Displaying-a-Graph-Pexels.jpeg?fit=640%2C426&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-ny3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90523"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96940,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90523\/revisions\/96940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}