Gov’t to launch US$237-M national broadband initiative

THE Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology (MSET) is looking to secure US$237 million for the roll-out of the country’s national broadband initiative that is expected to form a key part of its economic recovery efforts from the devastation brought on by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Daryl Vaz made the announcement during yesterday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, noting that Government is expected to foot US$67 million of that figure, while “funding options are being explored” for the remainder of the cost.

The initiative is a strategy by Government, he said, to achieve universal broadband access, with data showing fixed broadband penetration at 11.65 per cent and mobile penetration at 59.76 per cent.

“The distribution is even more troubling with the penetration highly skewed to urban centres while the vast majority of the rural population remain unserved and underserved,” he told the House.

As a result, he said the assistance of the Inter-american Development Bank (IDB) has been secured to develop a national broadband strategy which will support the implementation of the required infrastructure.

“This deployment of broadband into the nooks and crannies of Jamaica — deep rural, inner cities, outer cities, urban centres, and rural towns — will be the single most impactful intervention to eliminate the digital divide that now exists in our country.

“This Government will make access to the Internet a public good. The aim is to have every household, every community, connected by 2025,” said Vaz.

The objectives of the national broadband initiative, he said, are to achieve universal access; boost adoption and usage; improve quality and coverage of key services such as health and education and, more broadly, public services; guarantee affordability; promote entrepreneurship and local content creation; create new business models; boost ICT exports, and increase competitiveness.

“The success of the national broadband initiative will require public-private partnerships; improvement in various types of infrastructure such as telecommunication and electricity; and greater coordination in the deployment of public utility services. With respect to public utility services, these critical infrastructures are located within the public rights of way, namely sidewalks and roadways. Unfortunately, there is no policy or legislative framework governing the use of public rights of way,” he said.

“The MSET and the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation will therefore be working together to fasttrack the policy and legislative frameworks for the management and use of public rights of way,” he added.

Additionally, the minister said there is the requirement for the strengthening of the broader policy framework to support the initiative and in this regard, the ministry is far advanced in drafting a spectrum pricing policy to support greater access to spectrum at prices that will promote innovation and use of this scarce resource.

Vaz said work is also progressing on the development of infrastructure-sharing rules led by the Office of Utilities Regulation with support from the MSET, to regulate and manage greater access to existing and future telecommunications infrastructure.

He said progress is also being made in developing quality of service standard rules to prescribe the minimum targets to be achieved and sustained by telecommunications providers in respect of various technical and customer service quality parameters.

The minister said bridging the broadband penetration gap is expected to generate more than 95,000 direct jobs and bring Jamaica in line with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.