Telecommunications in Haiti
Despite wide-ranging poverty, Haiti increased its mobile phone coverage rate from 6% to 30% in one year (May 2006 to May 2007).[citation needed] Haiti is now the driving force in the mobile phone growth rate in the Caribbean.[citation needed] Radio still remains the primary information medium for most Haitians.[citation needed]
Television
In 2010, there were 36 VHF and 38 UHF broadcast stations. There were 30 UHF and 7 VHF Port-au-Prince (plus 5 cable TV systems)
- Broadcast stations
In 2010, there were 34 AM and 224 FM Radio Stations. This included 66 FM and 4 AM Port-au-Prince
- Televisions
38,120 (1997)[clarification needed]
In 2010, the following were radio and TV stations in Haiti:[1]
| Department | AM Stations | FM Stations | VHF Stations | UHF Stations | CABLE Stations | SATELLITE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OUEST | 4 | 66 | 7 | 30 | 3 | * |
| SUD-EST | 3 | 18 | 1 | 3 | * | * |
| NIPPES | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SUD | 3 | 19 | 9 | 2 | 2 | * |
| GRANDE-ANSE | 5 | 12 | 2 | 0 | - | - |
| CENTRE | 2 | 10 | 3 | 0 | - | - |
| ARTIBONITE | 6 | 42 | 6 | 1 | - | - |
| NORD-EST | 1 | 9 | 9 | 9 | - | - |
| NORD | 7 | 30 | 8 | 2 | - | - |
| NORD-OUEST | 3 | 15 | 2 | 1 | * | * |
| TOTAL | 34 | 226 | 36 | 38 | - | - |
Telephone
- Land lines
In 2010, there were 160,000 main lines in use.[2]
Natcom, the result of the privatization of Télécommunications d'Haiti S.A.M. (Teleco) in 2010, has a monopoly on the provision of landline services throughout the country. The Vietnamese company Viettel bought a 60% share, with the Haitian government keeping the remaining 40% of the company.[3]
Teleco was constantly hobbled by political interference which affected its performance. A net generator of revenues for the government in the 1970s and early 1980s, Teleco's fortunes then began to decline.
- Mobile cellular
3.2 million (2010) or 35% coverage rate.[4]
There were four major cell phone providers in Haiti: Digicel, NatCOM, Comcel/Voila, and Haitel.
Comcel, a subsidiary of Trilogy International Partners, LLC, was a TDMA company which launched its service in September 1999.
Haitel, an independent company founded by Franck Ciné, a Haitian-American and former MCI Inc executive, adopted CDMA technology.
Digicel Haiti, an affiliate of the pan-Caribbean Digicel Group won Haiti's first GSM license in June 2005 and launched service in early 2006.
In May 2006, Comcel and Haitel had a total of about 500,000 subscribers - a cell phone coverage rate of 6% for a population of 8.2 million. Digicel entered the market in May 2006. After one year of operations, May 2006-May 2007, Digicel went from zero to 1.4 millions subscribers. The other two cell phone providers, Comcel and Haitel, responded by cutting their prices and offering new services such as Voilà, a GSM service by Comcel, and CDMA 2000 by Haitel. As a result, Comcel and Haitel increased their subscribers from 500,000 to 1 million. As of April 2012, Digicel has about 3.5 millions cell phone subscribers in Haiti.[5] In May 2007, Digicel started offering two BlackBerry services with Internet, one for enterprises and one for individuals. On March 30, 2012, Digicel has made the acquisition of Comcel / Voila, its main competitor in the Haitian market.
- System
Domestic facilities are barely adequate. International facilities are slightly better
- domestic:
- coaxial cable and microwave radio relay trunk service
- international:
- satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)
Internet
Haiti's country code top-level domain is .ht. It is managed by Consortium FDS/RDDH. As of March 2009, it had 1155 domain names registered.[6]
There are 5 Internet service providers serving the country. Among them are Multilink,[7] H@inet[8] and Access Haiti.[9] In June 2010, Viettel (Natcom) announced that it would provide high speed internet throughout the country by laying 3,100 km (1,900 mi) of optical fiber.[10]
The Haitian telecommunications authority, CONATEL, has decided in October 2010 to allow the introduction of 3G services by the mobile telephone service providers.[11] This will enable them to deploy faster mobile internet access speeds throughout their network than what is currently available with GPRS/EDGE.
References
- ^ "Report of CONATEL" (PDF). contael.gouv.ht. Retrieved July 2010.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Template:Fr icon Le Matin : "De Téléco à Natcom / Une entreprise publique étrangère pour privatiser une entreprise publique haïtienne !"
- ^ Template:Fr icon Le Nouvelliste : "Et la Téléco devient Natcom"
- ^ Template:Fr icon Le Nouvelliste : "Digicel s'impatiente pour sa licence de fournisseur d'accès internet"
- ^ Template:Fr icon LaPresse Affaires : "Réseau cellulaire Digicel en Haïti: 2,2 millions d'abonnés en quatre ans"
- ^ Template:Fr icon Consortium FDS/RDDH : Statistics
- ^ http://www.multilink.ht
- ^ http://www.hainet.net
- ^ http://www.accesshaiti.com
- ^ Template:Fr icon Le Nouvelliste : "Viettel promet l'Internet à haut débit et à bon marché"
- ^ Template:Fr icon CONATEL : "Les services mobiles par téléphone, à l’aube d’énormes bouleversements au benefice du consommateur Haïtien."
