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BitDepth#1493
A NEW report, Gigabit Caribbean by Danish telecom consulting firm Strand Consult, was released in December 2024. It explores the challenges faced by operators and governments in driving investment in fixed and mobile networks in the Caribbean.
Strand surveyed most of the Caricom Caribbean except for Haiti, and sought perspectives from most large-scale operators in those countries.
The report does not break out evaluations or statistics for individual nation states, but the aggregate findings reflect current concerns about how to finance next-generation networks in the region.
The concept of a gigabit society was introduced by the European Commission in 2016 to describe a drive to very high-capacity networks that matched consumer shifts to internet-based communications, as well as the need to extend connectivity to rural and remote areas.
Strand suggests that a successful Caribbean gigabit society is one that implements 5G mobile broadband networks and fibre to the home (FTTH) download connections of at least 100 megabits per second (Mbps) by 2030.
In 2023, 5G networks accounted for just one per cent of all internet connections in the Caribbean.
According to the report, 1.6 million Caribbean households have a FTTH connection and 553,681 households are passed by a fibre connection but don't subscribe. More than a million households have no fibre connection and the cost of connecting these households is estimated at US$2.5 billion.
That isn't the only gap. Average revenue per user in Caribbean mobile broadband networks is around US$10 per month. While mobile broadband is generally pervasive in the region where it is available, the cost of even a basic FTTH connection is US$50 per month.
The International Monetary Fund sets GDP per capita for the region at less than US$13,000 per person. Using a monthly budget for communications of two per cent of income as a yardstick, just US$21 is available for a FTTH connection.
Broadband connections priced to cover investment costs are likely to double that fee.
Operators surveyed for the report noted that further development is limited by the challenge of recovering capital expenditure. There is no clear return on investment for high investment costs, particularly in rural areas that aren't served by electricity.
Where is the development money to come from?
If operators cannot recover the costs of investment from end users, the conversation inevitably turns to services that make disproportionate use of established networks as sources of revenue.
Globally, 80 per cent of internet traffic is video-streaming entertainment. Efforts at persuading the providers of these services, as well as other services that are implemented by free riders on existing broadband connections, such as voice and video calls on messaging services, have failed in the Caribbean.
The report references the development of South Korea from an agrarian societ
