The region’s leading telecoms provider that first connected the Caribbean to the rest of the world, LIME, called on regional government ministers and fellow telecoms providers to push for greater broadband penetration, allowing Caribbean nationals and businesses to participate in the consumption, creation and commercialization of mobile applications and digital content, capitalizing on the benefits of the thriving global technology industry.
LIME Caribbean CEO, Martin Roos was lauded for his statesman-like address at the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations (CANTO), thirtieth anniversary Ministerial Breakfast where he observed that, “The Caribbean is behind in relation to smart phone penetration and usage.”
He noted that, “You must be able to consume in order to create and Caribbean consumers need more indigenous regional content. There is also a huge opportunity to export content as the world is interested in the Caribbean. Together we must enable entrepreneurs to tap into this global ecosystem.”
The LIME executive called on regional government ministers to remove taxes on smart phone devices as a part of their market liberalization programme to better facilitate content creation and entrepreneurship, especially among young people. Noting that LIME has been the Caribbean’s ‘green house’ for engineers, he said that the technology highway is the new playground that will unlock and unleash the potential to export Caribbean music, sports and produce, as well as allow those in the region’s ubiquitous hospitality industry to better position our region’s natural beauty in the global competition for tourism.
Aided by research, he predicted that mobile data will increase by a factor of ten over the next five years, and appealed for urgency in regional action so that the Caribbean is not to be left behind.
This is need blood in LIME ….Thought leader!!!
Hope this is the turn pointing for a dying company with no creative visionary.
When LIME improves it’s service on all parts of the island then and only then can this man say anything about what the government needs to do.
actually Lime itself is a great obstacle for IT development in Dominica. You guys are monopoly which makes IP telephony and other internet technologies development almost impossible. The first thing Caribbean Governments have to do is to liberalize telecom in the Caribbean and allow new hi-tech companies to enter the region. But I guess its not what Lime CEO wants…what he wants is to get even more favorable conditions on import of mobile phones and it has nothing to do with technology development. What is important for the government is to create condtions then Python, C++ becomes a part of curriculum in schools and amount of IT qualified specialists grow. Also government shall strive to create modern laws for data protections, handling, privacy laws etc…..I guess those ideas above are just wishful thinking and future belongs to guys like Mr Ross making more money on overpriced iphones, lethargic internet connection and selling apps?
What you say Mr. Roos , is very true and Caribbean needs to stay in tune with technology to be competitive. In Dominica this language is beyond the understanding of the Powers That Be because their motor is, ‘All must beg and AID is better than Trade”. So we not going anywhere in Dominica unless the bandits getting their portion as kickbacks.
Thank God for UWP they were able to start the trend when they had Lime/Cable & Wireless surrender their monopoly on the telecom market in Dominica. As a result we were one of the countries in the Caribbean with great bandwidth/4g and efficient communication links to the outside world. Since then Technology has improved but the powers that be too busy stealing and working on kick backs to realize we are back in a lagging position.
Until we change the dounce and greedy to folks with innovation and vision we going no where!! We can do better and will do better but after getting this nonsense out of power!!
I have a four letter word for LIME.. where is the 4G speeds hmm, where is the faster internet speeds hmmm, SAT basic speed is 8mbps whereas LIME is 2mbps at a MUCH higher price…