Jamaica is a small and beautiful tropical island deep in the heart of the Caribbean Sea. It’s also been part of the Commonwealth ever since the British conquered it from the Spanish back in the 17th century. Nowadays, the country that gave birth to Usain Bolt and Bob Marley is a highly in-demand tourist destination, filled with luxury resorts that explore the paradisiacal beaches of calm, warm water to deliver a holiday experience that so many people dream of. In fact, there are less than three million inhabitants in Jamaica, but each year the number of tourists is around one and half times higher than that.
Consequently, great investment has been made in several of the country’s infrastructures over the years. Jamaica is the Caribbean country where internet access grew exponentially more than any other and, more importantly, still maintains open internet, too, since no services are blocked and nor is online censorship a problem.
The best example of how Jamaica has stepped up in the last few years can be seen in its internet penetration rate. In 2011 only 1.1 million people had an internet connection – which corresponds to approximately 32% of the population – but by the end of 2018 over 65% Jamaicans had access to the world wide web. An important aspect contributing to this successful growth is the greater investment in mobile data access, which accounts for most of the connections to the internet and represents the dominant share of the sector’s revenue.
The two main rival ISPs in Jamaica – Digicel and Flow – are both owned by the same corporation and have greatly contributed to the region’s rapid development when it comes to mobile internet. In fact, Digicel currently delivers the country’s largest LTE network and already aims at achieving 100% internet penetration as soon as possible with faster and better connections. This is great news for both Jamaican residents and tourists, who already have access to unrestricted internet without any blocks on social media, VoIP, or VPN services. This of course means that Facebook, Twitter, Skype, WhatsApp, and other services are all accessible.
Much like other countries in the Latin American and the Caribbean regions, Jamaica is still lacking the appropriate legislation on online privacy. However, there are other laws already in place that establish the protection of personal data dealt with in Jamaica, namely when it comes to its collection and sharing with third parties. As such, Jamaica is in a transitional period for the approval of online privacy laws, which could only improve the already good overall state of the internet in the country.
The online landscape in Jamaica resembles the calm beaches and warm sun of its real-world landscapes. Without ever encountering any barriers on internet access, users can feel as relaxed and free in the cyber space as they might when enjoying the tropical weather. There are no records of government or authority intervention online, as the constitution abides by its laws surrounding freedom of speech and press. Freedom House considers Jamaica to be a free country and there are no social media websites, VPN, VoIP, or streaming services blocked ever.
This investment in internet quality is already boosting the average internet speeds in Jamaica, and the future is likely to be even better. Even though rural areas might struggle to stream decent uninterrupted video content, this shouldn’t be a problem in larger cities or the many beach resorts around the island. There are plenty of choices when it comes to streaming services, too, with the industry giants of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video being the key representatives, though with less content than in America, naturally. And because Jamaica is the homeland of reggae music, streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Pandora, and many others aren’t missing either.
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