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Facilitating increased access to ICT’s in Trinidad and Tobago

Special Reports > Trinidad and Tobago, Communications & IT, Infrastructure & Transport

Paper Author

Cynthia Reddock-Downes, Executive Officer and Finance Administrator

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The Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago was established in July 2004 as the agency responsible for liberalising the telecommunications sector and for regulating both telecommunications and broadcasting in the twin island state of Trinidad and Tobago.

Since its establishment the Authority has successfully liberalised all telecommunications markets. Subsequently, these markets have experienced significant reductions in prices, as well as an overall increase in penetration over the past five years, especially in the mobile phone market, where the take-up has been significantly higher than all other markets.

Reducing the digital divide
In order to identify access gaps from a geographical perspective, the Authority intends to conduct Digital Divide Surveys on a regular basis. The last survey, conducted in 2007, generated a national Digital Access Index (DAI) and national Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) of 0.67 and 0.63 respectively. These results rank Trinidad and Tobago within the upper axis quadrant of the Index Value Scale. However, low indices in specific areas were observed, and were generally due to the lack of access to fixed telephony and Internet services caused by inadequate network infrastructure. Since 2007 access to fixed telephony and Internet services has significantly increased with the introduction new operators offering these services.

The Authority continues to be committed to its goal of reducing the digital divide by monitoring operators’ compliance with existing network roll-out obligations. The Authority also continues to authorise new operators to provide services using Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technologies, to increase broadband penetration and access to ICT services. With the exception of the domestic mobile market and the Free-to-Air broadcasting markets, the local market is open to new entrants and thus applications are welcomed by interested operators. The Authority will soon be inviting applications for a third mobile operator, thus increasing the availability and variety of mobile telecommunications services.

Making broadband spectrum available
The Authority conducted two spectrum auctions, the first in October, 2007 for spectrum in the Lower 700 MHz, 12 GHz and 28 GHz bands and the second in April, 2009 for spectrum in the Lower 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands. The award of spectrum from these auctions are for the provision of BWA services, namely broadband Internet access and subscription television. Currently there are five operators with netwrosk deployed and offering BWA services. These networks serve as alternatives to the traditional wired networks. The Authority expects to reclaim additional spectrum in the Upper 700 MHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands, within the 2011-2012 period, which may be allocated for the provision of BWA services in the near future. It is hoped that the provision of telecommunications services, particularly Internet, using BWA technologies would assist in reducing the existing access gaps.

Universality - facilitating access to all
Even with competition, there may still be some communities and population groups that would require subsidies in order to have access to affordable basic telecommunications. The Authority has recently finalised a ‘Universality Framework’, which incorporates comments from relevant stakeholders in the industry. This plan will inform regulations to establish a funding mechanism and other appropriate subsidy programs to address any divide that competitive market forces cannot alleviate.

As its first universality initiative, after the passing of the universality regulations, the Authority intends to facilitate the provision of assisting technologies and services to persons within the disabled community.

Strengthening Capacity
As the Authority continues to play a part in enabling the regulatory environment, it is committed to improving the regulatory framework and strengthening its institutional capacity to better address issues of service quality, anti-competitive behaviour, efficiency in service delivery, affordable pricing and access to basic ICT services by all.