Communications in Barbados refers to the telephony, internet, postal, radio, and television systems of
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
.
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
has long been an informational and communications centre in the
Caribbean region.
Electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...
coverage throughout Barbados is good and reliable. Usage is high and provided by a service monopoly,
Barbados Light & Power Company Ltd. (a division of
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
-based
Emera
Emera Incorporated is a publicly traded Canadian multinational energy holding company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Created in 1998 during the privatization of Nova Scotia Power, a provincial Crown corporation, Emera now invests in regulated ele ...
).
The
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
(ITU)
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...
prefix allocated for all
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
and
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
broadcasts in Barbados is 8P, and this replaced the former ZN and VP6 as a
British territory
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
.
History
![All Red Line](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/All_Red_Line.jpg)
Barbados has had various forms of Communications as early as the 1840s. Some of the earliest expressions of inter-island communication includes a number of signal stations built along the high points of the island to relay acts of transgression towards the island to the
Saint Ann's Garrison on the south-west coast. The first telephone network in the country was developed in 1884. As the former
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
's
All Red Line
The All Red Line was a system of electrical telegraphs that linked much of the British Empire. It was inaugurated on 31 October 1902. The informal name derives from the common practice of colouring the territory of the British Empire red or ...
came into existence during the early 1900s, Barbados played an important role as a crucial link in the
trans-Atlantic communications network. By 1935 a hard wired cable-based radio network was later deployed throughout the country to broadcast the
Rediffusion
Rediffusion was a business that distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, the first ITV ( commer ...
service directly from
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to homes and business across Barbados.
In 2001 the
Government of Barbados
The Government of Barbados (GoB), is a unitary parliamentary republic, where the President of Barbados represents as the head of state and the Prime Minister of Barbados represents as the head of government.
Structure
The country has a bicam ...
and the local
Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) provider,
Cable & Wireless signed a MOU beginning a phased process of liberalisation of the international segment of Barbados' telecommunications sector. The process was aimed at bringing Barbados' sector into compliance with the
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation
in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...
(WTO). The plan outlined the first phase commencing on 1 December 2001 and the entire process ending with full liberalisation being achieved on 1 August 2003. As these target dates were missed, the Phase I process was later commenced on 1 November 2002, with Phase II and III beginning on 16 November 2003 and 21 February 2004 respectively. Full liberalisation was attained in February, 2005, for the international telecommunications services market.
Telephone
Country Code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes (geocodes) developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The term ...
:
+1.246
International Call Prefix
An international call prefix, international dial-out code or international direct dial code (IDD code) is a trunk prefix that indicates an international phone call. In the dialling sequence, the prefix precedes the country calling code (and, fur ...
: 011 (outside NANP)
Calls from Barbados to the US, Canada, and other NANP Caribbean nations, are dialled as 1 + NANP area code + 7-digit number. Calls from Barbados to non-NANP countries are dialled as 011 + country code + phone number with local area code.
Number Format: nxx-xxxx
The rate of telecommunications penetration in Barbados ranks among the highest in the world. According to the
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
, telephone service for the period 2000–2004, stated Barbados had 124 telephones in usage for every 100 people. Telecommunications are virtually universally accessible to all.
;
Telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...
s - main lines in use:
: 134,900 (2005)
:''county comparison to the world:'' 133
; Telephones -
mobile cellular:
: 237,100 (2006)
:''county comparison to the world:'' 165
; Telephone system:
:* general assessment: fixed-line teledensity of roughly 50 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone density of about 85 per 100 persons
:* domestic: island-wide automatic telephone system
:* international access code: +1.246 (in the
North American Numbering Plan
The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the international calling ...
,
Area code 246);
::* landing point for:
:::*1) the
East Caribbean Fiber System (ECFS) submarine cable with links to 13 other islands in the eastern Caribbean extending from the
British Virgin Islands
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = Territorial song
, song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands"
, image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg
, map_caption =
, mapsize = 290px
, image_map2 = Bri ...
to
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
;
:::*2); the
Antilles Crossing Phase 1 link to the
US Virgin Islands
The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...
via
Saint Lucia;
:: satellite earth stations - 1 (
Intelsat - Atlantic Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Trinidad and
Saint Lucia (2007)
; Mobile providers:
::* ''Current'': Liberty Latin America (d/b/a
Flow),
Digicel
Digicel is a Jamaican and Caribbean mobile phone network and home entertainment provider operating in 33 markets worldwide.
Digicel has operated in several countries, including Guyana, Fiji, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Suriname, a ...
::* ''Defunct'': ''
Cingular Wireless
AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the t ...
(divested to Digicel)'',
Sunbeach
Broadcasting
; Radio broadcast stations:
: AM 2, FM 6,
shortwave 0 (2004)
::*(VOB-AM 790 (Gospel), 8PX-AM 900 (CBC)
::*(BBS 90.7FM, PBS 91.9FM, BBC 92.1FM, VOB 92.9FM, CBC 94.7FM, HOTT 95.3FM, Mix 96.9FM, Gospel 97.5FM, The One 98.1FM, WE 99.9FM(SVG), Q 100.7FM, SLAM 101.1FM, Faith 102.1FM, Love 104.1FM, Radio GED 106.1 FM)
;
Radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
s:
: 237,000 (1997)
; Television broadcast stations:
: 1 (plus two cable channels) (2004)
::*
8PX-TV (
C.B.C. TV8)
::*
Public Broadcast Service
The Public Broadcast Service (PBS) is a government-owned educational radio and television broadcast service in Barbados. Public Broadcast Service owns a radio station, 91.1FM and its television programming was introduced in 2009.
The station fa ...
(PBS) -- ''Scheduled for 2009''
;
Television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
s:
: 76,000 (1997)
Internet
;
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
: 3+ (1999)
: (
Cable & Wireless (CaribSurf),
TeleBarbados/Freemotion.bb (frequently reported for malicious phishing practices by users accessing their webmail domain found via mail.free.bb),
[WOT.COM] Sunbeach Communications)
;
Internet country code:
:
.BB
.bb is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Barbados.
History
The .bb top-level domain has been maintained by several administrators since its creation, the first of which being the University of Puerto Rico.
In 1996, the Gov ...
;
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
hosts:
: 104 (2008)
:''county comparison to the world:'' 178
; Internet users:
: 160,000 (2005)
:''county comparison to the world:'' 131
Broadband Internet access
Globally, the country of
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
was ranked by the
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
(ITU) and UNICEF to be one of the most wired countries in the world on a
per capita
''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...
basis. The report entitled "State Of The World's Children 2007" stated Barbados had rate of
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
usage which was 55 users for every 100 people. This ranking meant that only 13 nations:
Australia,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
,
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarch ...
,
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
,
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
San Marino
San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
,
Sweden,
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
had a higher ratios per head of population. In so scoring this placed Barbados in the lead for the
Caribbean and
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
regions.
Telephone services in Barbados are provided by:
LIME
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
(''Incumbent''),
Digicel
Digicel is a Jamaican and Caribbean mobile phone network and home entertainment provider operating in 33 markets worldwide.
Digicel has operated in several countries, including Guyana, Fiji, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Suriname, a ...
,
Sunbeach, WIISCOM,
Internet services in the country are provided by:
CariAccess,
CaribSurf, Neptune Communications,
Sunbeach Communications,
TeleBarbados/Freemotion.bb,
WI-NET INC.
ADSL services are widely available, as are Frame Relay and other more advanced services.
See also
*
.bb
.bb is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Barbados.
History
The .bb top-level domain has been maintained by several administrators since its creation, the first of which being the University of Puerto Rico.
In 1996, the Gov ...
*
Call signs in North America
*
List of countries by number of Internet users
Below is a sortable list of countries by number of Internet users, for 2020. Internet users are defined as persons who accessed the Internet in the last 12 months from any device, including mobile phones.The statistics for numbers of Internet ...
*
List of television stations in the Caribbean#Barbados
*
List of radio stations in Barbados
This is a list of AM and FM radio stations in Barbados. Where possible, nicknames of stations have been given alongside the frequencie AM station
FM stations
TV station
Other broadcasters to Barbados
The following stations which ...
*
List of telecommunications companies in Barbados
References
* , 2004, 2006 and 2009
Further reading
Cable & Wireless in Barbados Posted on 19 September 2016 by BajanThings.com
International Communication in Barbados 50 years ago Posted on 15 March 2017 by BajanThings.com
External links
telecoms.gov.bb- Government of Barbados' Telecommunications unit
2001 + Amendment(s)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Telecommunications in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
Internet in Barbados