Barbados is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean. It's covering an area of 432 km2 and is situated about 168 km east of the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and 400 km north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Almost 300,000 people live on the island.
Like on many Caribbean islands there are these two usual providers: Digicel Barbados and Flow (by Cable & Wireless)
Flow is the incumbent provider and Digicel came to the Caribbean 2001-6 to end this monopoly. A third provider called Sunbeach on CDMA was closed in 2013. Digicel has become market leader and commercially launched its 4G/LTE mobile network in the capital Bridgetown in 2016, Flow in 2017.
Flow is on US frequencies of 1900 MHz for 2G and 850 MHz and 1900 MHz for 3G, while Digicel uses European bands of 900 MHz and 1800 MHz for 2G and 2100 MHz for 3G. Digicel's 4G/LTE has started on 700 MHz and 1900 MHz (bands 17 and 2) while FLOW's 4G/LTE is on bands 1900 MHz and 850 MHz (bands 2 and 5).
Digicel started in 2004 to challenge the monopoly of Lime (now known as Flow). They have been very successful in Barbados and had a 57% market share in 2015. In 2016 they were the first operator to launch 4G/LTE in Bridgetown and have extensive coverage over the island.
Flow (previously called Lime), is operated by Cable & Wireless. In recent years they have fallen back against Digicel, but lowered rates in 2017. They offer a good 2G and 3G coverage, and launched 4G/LTE in 2017.
Barbados has issued a third telecoms licence, as it seeks to break up the long-standing Digicel-Flow duopoly. Clifford Bostic, Director of Digital Infrastructure at the Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology (MIST), told Barbados Today:
‘We have a third service provider in Barbados that has been licensed, and that is KW Telecommunications Ltd, and they are also preparing for number portability, as well as preparing to launch their services in Barbados.’
While little is known about KW Telecommunications, or its backers, the newcomer appears set to fill the void left when the previous third operator, debt-wracked Ozone Wireless shut down in August 2019, barely two years after its launch.
Equatorial Guinea is located on the West coast of Africa with about 1.7 million inhabitants. It is a different country to Guinea (aka Guinea-Conakry) or Guinea-Bissau.
Two GSM-based networks are operating in Equatorial Guinea :Getesa (formerly: Orange, Getesa-Orange) and Muni.
There is also a CDMA-based provider that is not compatible with usual GSM-devices called Gecomsa.
Mobile phone adaption was rather slow in this country, but they now have more than 800,000 mobile connections. 2G and 3G are available on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz.
Equatorial Guinea is next to the ocean, which means it is connected to several submarine cables. This is essential to know because most landlocked African countries have slow speeds and bad connections because the country has to rely on neighbouring countries for fibre bandwidth.
The issue is that there is massive inequality in terms of internet access in Equatorial Guinea. Although internet services are widespread throughout the country, the quality of service is lacking due to the lack of proper broadband infrastructure. A country can have access to multiple submarine cables. However, if the domestic internet infrastructure is lacking, then the locals cannot take advantage of the connection.
According to a study done by cable.co.uk, the mean download speed in Equatorial Guinea is less than 1 Mbps. In other words, it would take more than 22 hours to download a 5 GB file. This study focused on broadband speeds. Mobile speeds are often slower than broadband speeds, so one should not expect fast speeds in Equatorial Guinea.
The Getesa network was called Orange until 2018. The French operator left the country in a long legal dispute 2014-18.
Equatorial Guinea’s government lost a Paris Court of Appeal case against a fine imposed in 2014 by the International Court of Arbitration for reneging on a 2011 agreement to buy Orange’s Getesa 40% stake in the event of a new entrant launching (a clause it failed to honour after the 2012 launch of majority state-owned cellco Gecomsa). In October 2016 the government finally agreed to pay a total amount of EUR 150 million including interest to Orange.
Orange was soon rebranded first to Getesa-Orange and in 2018 to Getesa, that is now fully state-owned. It's still considered the best operator in the country.
Getesa switched on its 4G LTE smartphone network in January 2021. The operator encouraged users to ‘Use your 4G to stay connected with your family, friends, clients and with the whole world’, following its initial post announcing 4G’s availability on 24 December 2020, which stated: ‘4G arrives at Getesa’ alongside a picture of a smartphone user. 4G coverage or other details were not provided.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that Getesa had previously claimed that it would be able to launch 4G in main cities by end-2019 supported by fibre backhaul/backbone availability, having held a demo of LTE technology in May that year, but a launch took a further year to materialise, whilst in the meantime Getesa repeatedly claimed in its marketing that its 3G network offered faster data speeds than some 4G operators.
Muni is the only private competitor to the state-owned networks. It's no.2 behind Getesa with a lower coverage/speed. Muni launched 4G LTE services in Equatorial Guinea in June 2019, although initially aimed at home internet modem users rather than mobile phone subscribers.
Gecomsa is another state-owned provider however its CDMA-only which is not compatible with usual GSM devices and hence not suitable for travellers. It started in 2012 as joint venture between the Guinea government and the state-owned ZTE manufacturer from China. Gecomsa also introduced LTE technology in December 2020 but strictly for fixed residential/office broadband services (initially covering Equatorial Guinea’s capital Malabo and adjacent districts.
Notably, the cost of mobile data significantly declined this year compared to the last one in Malawi ($26 to $2), Chad ($23 to $2), and Equatorial Guinea ($50 to $10) – taking them off the list of countries with the most expensive mobile data - D
The Equatorial Guinea government and operators signed an agreement to slash telecom tariff prices by 50% on May 1 2022, as the government looks to permanently reduce sky-high prices in the country.
Equatorial Guinea is widely known for having the highest prices for connectivity globally. The 2021 study from Cable.co.uk also found that 1GB of data in Equatorial Guinea cost around US$46.97.
The nation’s vice president Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue stressed the discount is temporary and will continue as a permanent structure to pricing is agreed upon, reported Ecofin Agency.
Operators that do not comply with the slashing of prices will lose their telecom licenses, warned Mangue.
One of the smaller countries in Central America, Belize in many respects has closer ties to English speaking countries of the Caribbean than with its immediate neighbours. Prior to independence, Belize had been a British colony since 1862, only changing its name to Belize from British Honduras in 1973.
In Belize, the telecommunications market is predominantly served by two major mobile operators: Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) is a government-owned telecommunications company that provides mobile, landline, and internet services and operates as Digi (formerly DigiCell). It has a significant market share and has invested in expanding its infrastructure and services. The second operator is SpeedNet Communications operating under the brand "Smart," is the primary competitor to BTL. It offers mobile and internet services, providing consumers with choices in the market.
GSM users don't have much choice as the only GSM-based operator in the country used to be Digi (DigiCell). 2G/EDGE is on 1900 MHz and 3G/HSPA which is still marketed as "4G" is on 850 MHz. Real 4G/LTE started in 2016 on Digi and Smart! on the 700 (B13) and 1900 (B2) MHz bands. Smart! has become an alternative soon as it's moved from CDMA to 3G on 850 MHz.
Belize’s fixed-line teledensity and mobile penetration remain lower than average for the region, a legacy of insufficient market competition and underinvestment in telecoms services, exacerbated by lax managerial standards within the incumbent operator Digi.
However, Digi has recently adopted a reforming strategy, partly expressed by its rebranding in August 2018 as it aims to transform itself at all levels into an effectively competitive operator more commercially minded and focussed on cheaper pricing and customer retention. The company has undertaken significant investment in infrastructure, launching an LTE-A service at the end of 2016 and in mid-2017 completing a submarine cable to Ambergris Caye, enabling it to launch an FttP service in San Pedro. Loans secured since 2017 enabled the company to migrate its infrastructure from legacy copper to fibre. BTL invested BZ$93 million dollars to provide high speed broadband to 80% of residences across Belize.
Digi has provided fresh details regarding its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) rollout in its published 2021-22 Annual Report.
The FTTH infrastructure now passes 90% of Belizean homes, after being extended to an additional 1,200 homes in Corozal Free Zone, Central Farm, Consejo Shores, Spanish Lookout, San Pedro South and Caye Caulker North. In terms of mobile upgrades, new 4G cell sites were deployed on Coco Plum Island and Manta Island in Southern Belize and the telco now operates ‘over 150 mobile sites’.
As of 31 March 2022 BTL claimed 204,000 mobile subscriptions (up from 194,000 year-on-year), 31,000 fixed broadband subscriptions (unchanged y-o-y) and 13,500 fixed voice lines (down from 15,700).
Smart launched the first LTE network in Belize in December 2015 over the B13 (700 MHz) band. Recognising the eventual deprecation of CDMA based networks and after years of delays, the company launched its 3G UMTS network in June 2017 over the B5 (850 MHz) band. 4G/LTE is on Band 13 / 700 MHz.
Smart now claims to operate the largest, fastest network in Belize, providing mobile, home and Internet service to over 100,000 customers.
The operators in Belize face several challenges for example: limited infrastructure, Belize's geography, with dense forests and low population density, poses challenges for building and maintaining a robust telecommunications infrastructure, especially in rural areas. Also the cost of service, Belizean consumers often grapple with high mobile service costs, including data charges. Balancing affordability with quality service remains a challenge for mobile operators.
A modern 5G network does not yet exist in Belize. The penetration rate of 4G, i.e., mobile communications with at least LTE speed, was recently 70 percent. In other words, 121,581.60 people in the country had to make do with a maximum Internet speed of the outdated UMTS standard (or even less).
A great deal more investment, collaboration, and a focus on meeting the evolving needs of consumers, However, with investment, collaboration, and a focus on meeting the evolving needs of consumers by Belize's mobile operators is needed to further improve and develop the mobile landscape.
