Jamaicans to get more hotspot locations
Published:Wednesday | November 24, 2021 | 12:11 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Jamaicans can expect more roll-outs of community Wi-Fis and hotspots across the island says Daniel Dawes, chief executive officer of the Universal Service Fund (USF).
Dawes told The Gleaner last week Tuesday at the closing ceremony of the Technology Advancement Programme, which was launched in 2017 by the USF, that he is pleased to report that citizens across the island will receive an early Christmas gift.
This is so, as the USF will make every effort to deploy up to 32 extra Internet connection points, just in time for the holidays.
This is in an attempt to meet the USF’s target of providing Internet availability to 289 locations across the island.
Paying a keen attention and focus on closing the digital divide, especially those in underserved areas of Jamaica, this owing to their inability to access and acquire affordable Internet services, Dawes says the USF is in the process of installing new hotspots.
While in the process of building new hotspots to close the digital gap, particularly for individuals in underprivileged areas of Jamaica who are unable to access and obtain inexpensive Internet services, Dawes says areas in Morant Bay located in St Thomas, Savanna-la-Mar in the Westmoreland parish, Lucea in Hanover, among much others, are on the agenda.
They have also given consideration to the deployment of Internet connections to areas in St Catherine and Port Maria in St Mary.
The USF has successfully deployed a total of 20 public Wi-Fi hotspots and 217 community Wi-Fi hotspots across the island in three sections of each of Jamaica’s 63 constituencies.
Dawes told The Gleaner on Tuesday that he expects the USF to have installed Internet access points in just over 289 places across Jamaica by the end of the financial year, which ends in March 2022, but the process takes a few months to complete.
“We just wanna make sure that all Jamaicans have access to the Internet and that it is available and certainly affordable,” said Dawes.
The USF is an agency under the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology, mandated to ensure universal access to information and communications technology tools to facilitate the development of Jamaica.