Accelerating Caribbean Entrepreneurship: CARCIP Calls For Business Incubators

March 9, 2015. Kingstown—Businesses in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have until April 3 to apply to provide incubation services to entrepreneurs, as part of an ongoing government grant funding programme.

Under its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development agenda, the country’s government has been on a drive to accelerate the growth and success of entrepreneurial companies. 

Successful Business Incubation grant applicants are expected to provide an array of business support resources and services to budding business, including physical space, capital, coaching, common services and networking connection.

To be eligible for funding, a business must be legally registered with the relevant local authorities and have a physical presence in the country. It must also have a suitably qualified and experienced business incubator manager and support staff. Services offered could be virtual or residential.

The programme is part of the country’s Caribbean Regional Communication Infrastructure Program (CARCIP). Funded by the International Development Association of the World Bank, the CARCIP helps governments and private sector to harmonise the development of critical telecommunications infrastructure in three participating Eastern Caribbean countries—Grenada, Saint Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. 

CARCIP SVG is being implemented by the Central Planning Division and coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Commerce and Information Technology.

More information is available on the official website carcipsvg.gov.vc, or at the CARCIP office, Fourth Floor, CLICO Building, Kingstown, or by phone at 784-456-1223, or e-mail carcipsvg@gov.vc.

Caribbean Tech Community To Gather in Montego Bay

MONTEGO BAY—Anyone interested in the development of the Internet in Caribbean may have already heard of CaribNOG, the Caribbean Network Operators Group. Over the past decade, this volunteer-based community of computer engineers has grown into a formidable influencer in the regional technology arena. Today, its twice-yearly regional gatherings are among the most highly anticipated events on the Caribbean’s tech calendar.

CaribNOG facilitates education and training for those in the Caribbean responsible for designing, deploying and maintaining computer networks. This year, when the three-day event kicks off on April 20 in Montego Bay, Jamaica, CaribNOG will be breaking new ground.

“The Caribbean’s technology landscape is evolving rapidly, and CaribNOG plays a key role in helping the region keep pace with global trends,” said Bevil Wooding, one of the founders of the organisation.

“The same challenges experienced across networks in larger regions are now confronting networks in the smaller, resource-constrained markets of the Caribbean,” he said. “From cyber-attacks and network outages to malicious software and challenges of scaling networks to meet growing demand, network administrators have to constantly adapt and evolve.”

Wooding (pictured above) has a unique vantage point into the intriguing world of Internet engineers, infrastructure and bottom-up decision making.  As one of the region’s leading voices in the technology arena and an Internet Strategist with the technology research non-profit, Packet Clearing House, he has been instrumental in growing CaribNOG’s influence regionally and internationally.

“At the eleventh regional gathering of CaribNOG this week, we’re expecting our largest turnout to date, with participation from network operators, telecommunications regulators, academics, Internet service providers, engineering and computer science students, special interest groups and government representatives, drawn from across the region and around the world,” he said.

That’s no surprise. The Montego Bay event has attracted the attention of major international technology players such as Google, Akamai, the Latin American Internet Registry (LACNIC), the Internet Society (ISOC) and the American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN).

“CaribNOG 11 is being hosted in conjunction with ARIN’s public policy meeting as part of an ongoing collaboration between the two groups to increase awareness in the region of various Internet policy and technical developments,” said Jamaican-born Stephen Lee, CaribNOG’s program director.

Lee is a network engineer and CEO of US-based technology solutions provider Arkitechs. He added that CaribNOG also receives strong support from the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), the inter-governmental agency responsible for information and communications technology in the CARICOM region.

“CaribNOG has worked closely with the CTU over the years to educate government officials about technology trends and their impact on public policy.”

The array of high-profile technology experts expected to speak at CaribNOG 11 includes Shernon Osepa, Manager, Regional Affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean at ISOC, Albert Daniels, Senior Manager of Stakeholder Engagement for the Caribbean at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Bill Woodcock, Executive Director of Packet Clearing House, and Owen De Long of Akamai.

Also among the slate of presenters are representatives from local and regional organisations such as the Organisation for Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Government of Jamaica and Cable and Wireless.

CaribNOG 11 runs from April 20 to 22 at the Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Free online registration is available at CaribNOG’s official website, www.caribnog.org.

Originally published: CaribJournal

Digicel bigwigs in closed talks with Cable and Wireless, Columbus execs in Port-of-Sain

Top executives of the region's three major telecommunications players hammered out their differences in a five-hour meeting hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) in Port-of-Spain.

Telecom execs Denis O’Brien (Digicel), Phil Bentley (Cable and Wireless Communications) and Brendan Paddick (Columbus Communications) met to discuss the recently announced US$3 billion acquisition of Columbus Communications by Cable and Wireless.

“If this merger takes place, you will eliminate a very vibrant competitor in Columbus, and Cable and Wireless will basically own the market in T&T, Jamaica, Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada,” O’Brien said in a December 10 telephone interview, echoing the concerns of regional officials who fear that the proposed deal will result in the formation of a monopoly or near-monopoly in many Caribbaen markets for telephony, cable TV and broadband services.

“This is crazy stuff!” he said.

Digicel also wanted to buy Columbus, but valued it under, at 2 billion euros (US$2.49 billion). If Digicel had acquired Columbus, it would have also had a stranglehold on segments of the market in the region, a December 9 Irish Times article reported.

But asked if he would have been so outspoken for rigorous regulatory oversight in those circumstances, O’Brien said, “We would have kept Columbus and been head to head with Cable and Wireless and Lime.”

Instead, with the acquisition of Columbus by CWC, the new merged entity will control 100 per cent of fixed, broadband and submarine cables across the region, he claimed.

A Digicel-Columbus would have added competition to the Caribbean market, not eliminated it, O'Brien said.

“We would have had to go through the process with all the governments and regulators in the region. We would not have ducked that. If we buy a business, we have to get approval from the government. Simple as that.”

A high-level panel discussion with the three regional telecoms giants and local players GreenDot, DirectTV and TSTT took place behind closed doors in a forum hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), a Caricom organisation that advises regional governments on approaches to telecommunications and technology issues.

At the top of the agenda for the CTU’s two-day meeting is the formulation of a regional response to the CWC-Columbus merger.Industry observers regard the CTU’s entry as a response to a region-wide concern over issues beyond the CWC-Columbus deal itself. Internet Strategist Bevil Wooding described the deal as “part of a wider trend of market consolidation taking place in the region’s telecommunications sector” and worldwide.

In the CTU forum were delegates from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Telecommunications Authority of T&T (Tatt) and the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (Ectel), Belize, Suriname, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, as well as other government and civil society organisations.