Carib Scope

分类： technology

  • A dashboard in minutes — no analyst, no software, no wait

    A dashboard in minutes — no analyst, no software, no wait

    For countless small business teams, the weekly Monday management meeting follows a frustratingly familiar pattern. Key performance metrics are buried deep inside a multi-tab spreadsheet that only one staff member knows how to navigate. What follows is a messy scramble: one participant pastes cropped screenshots of key cells into a group chat, another reads off totals from a printed sheet, and the entire first 20 minutes of the meeting are wasted just confirming what the numbers actually are — rather than discussing why those numbers changed.

    What these misaligned meetings need is a centralized, interactive dashboard: a single view that displays headline metrics at a glance, complete with revenue trend charts, top-performing product breakdowns, geographic sales splits, and customizable filters. When a stakeholder asks, “How did sales look last May at the Montego Bay location?”, the answer is just one click away, not a days-late follow-up email.

    Until very recently, building a custom dashboard demanded weeks of work from data analysts using expensive specialized software, plus ongoing license fees to keep the tool functional. For most small and medium-sized businesses, these barriers made custom dashboards out of reach. Today, however, artificial intelligence has condensed this entire complex project into a single, plain-language prompt.

    ### The one-prompt process that works with AI tools you already own
    The full workflow is surprisingly simple. First, export your sales data into a single clean spreadsheet with four clear columns: transaction date, product name, sales location, and transaction amount. Then upload this sheet to your preferred AI assistant with a straightforward prompt like the following:

    “You are a world-leading HTML dashboard designer. Build me an interactive HTML dashboard from this sales data. I want summary cards for total revenue, growth versus last month, and average sale value; a monthly revenue trend; my top ten products; and a breakdown by location. Let me filter everything by month and by location. Deliver the finished dashboard as a downloadable HTML file.”

    Within just a few minutes, you will have a fully functional, interactive dashboard — complete with formatted charts, pre-calculated totals, and working filters — delivered as a standalone HTML file that you can download, open in any web browser, and share with your entire team. This is not a rough mockup or a description of what a dashboard could look like: it is a finished, clickable product ready for immediate use.

    Most remarkably, this capability is not locked behind a single niche AI product. All three of the most widely used AI tools that Jamaican business professionals already subscribe to are capable of completing this task:
    – Anthropic’s Claude generates polished interactive pages with fully functional charts, summary cards, and filters that open directly in the chat window and can be shared seamlessly with teams. For users who prioritize clean, professional presentation, Claude outperforms the other two options.
    – Microsoft Copilot is built directly into Excel and the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem. For companies that already store all their data in Excel and run their operations on Microsoft tools, pointing Copilot to your existing sales table and asking for analysis and visualization is the fastest, most streamlined path to a finished dashboard.
    – OpenAI’s ChatGPT accepts uploaded spreadsheets directly in chat and builds fully formed interactive charts and views. Users can enable the Canvas feature to preview the finished dashboard live before downloading it, making it a convenient option for teams that already pay for a ChatGPT subscription and do not need to adopt new tools.

    Across all three platforms, the quality of the final dashboard depends far more on the clarity of your prompt than the specific tool you choose. Clearly state what metrics you want to display, what you want users to be able to filter by, and who the dashboard is for. This simple communication skill translates seamlessly across all major AI assistants.

    ### How this changes business meetings in practice
    To see the real-world impact, consider a small Jamaican retail chain with three locations: Kingston, Mandeville, and Montego Bay. On a Friday afternoon, the business owner exports the month’s sales data from their point-of-sale system, uploads the cleaned file to their preferred AI assistant with the standard prompt, and spends just 10 minutes cross-checking the AI-generated totals against the original source data. When the Monday management meeting starts, the dashboard is already pulled up on the conference room screen.

    No one wastes time asking “what are the numbers?” Instead, the first question the team addresses is, “Why did sales drop 8% in Mandeville this month?” That is the kind of strategic conversation business meetings are supposed to be for — and it was previously out of reach for most small teams because of administrative busywork. As the author notes: “The first twenty minutes of the meeting used to go to what the numbers are. A dashboard spends them on why.”

    ### Critical security and quality notes to reduce risk
    Before uploading any sensitive business data to an AI tool, experts emphasize that it is non-negotiable to check where your data is being stored and processed. All three major AI tools host uploaded files on their own servers, but each offers business-tier subscription plans (Claude for Work, Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT Business and Enterprise) that explicitly prohibit using customer uploads to train the platform’s underlying models. For users on free or personal plans, always double-check privacy settings and disable model training on your uploads before sharing sensitive data.

    Regardless of your subscription plan, sales dashboards do not require personal customer information such as names, account numbers, or staff details to deliver actionable insights. Always strip out any personally identifiable information before exporting your data, as aggregated sales data by product and location is enough to tell the full business story without exposing sensitive personal data.

    It is also important to understand the limits of this AI-powered workflow. A dashboard is only as accurate as the underlying source data. If your export contains duplicated rows, typos in location or product names, or other errors, the AI will faithfully generate a visualizations of that bad data. Always cross-check a handful of key metrics — including total revenue, a random product total, and a random location total — against the original source data before sharing the dashboard with your team.

    Finally, remember that a dashboard only displays business performance — it cannot make strategic decisions for you. When the dashboard flags an 8% sales drop in Mandeville, the critical judgement about what actions to take to reverse that decline still remains with your leadership team.

    ### Four easy steps to try before your next meeting
    The author outlines a simple four-step workflow to test this AI tool in your business this week:
    1. Export 12 months of historical sales data into a single clean spreadsheet with four columns: date, product, location, amount — and remove all customer personal identifiable information first.
    2. Upload the file to Claude, Copilot, or ChatGPT with one clear prompt: request summary cards, a monthly revenue trend, top 10 product breakdown, geographic sales split, and filters for month and location.
    3. Before sharing the dashboard with your team, cross-check three key metrics against your source spreadsheet to confirm accuracy: total revenue, one product total, and one location total.
    4. Pull up the finished dashboard at the start of your next management meeting, and note which metric your team chooses to investigate first. That investigation becomes your next strategic priority.

    The article closes with a core reminder: Always verify AI-generated figures against your original source data before making any business decisions based on the dashboard.

    This piece was written by Peta-Gaye Hardy, founder of PGH Consulting, LLC, a firm that helps finance and operations teams adopt practical, low-risk AI tools for business. Hardy authors the weekly *AI in Finance & Business* column and splits her time between Jamaica and the United States. More information is available at www.pghconsultinggroup.com, and the firm can be followed on Instagram @pghconsultinggroup.

    **Disclaimer:** This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. AI tools are prone to generating errors, so all outputs must always be verified against source data. Some features described require paid subscriptions. The author holds no commercial relationship with Anthropic, Microsoft, OpenAI, or any other product mentioned in this piece and received no compensation for this article. Readers are advised to consult a qualified professional before making any business decisions based on this approach.

  • Antiguan Fintech ClicCash Represents Antigua & Barbuda at London Tech Week

    Antiguan Fintech ClicCash Represents Antigua & Barbuda at London Tech Week

    Against the backdrop of London Tech Week 2026 — one of the world’s most high-profile annual gatherings of technology innovators, investment leaders, and government policymakers — a trailblazing Caribbean fintech firm has stepped onto the global stage, carrying the flag of its twin-island home across key diplomatic and industry events in the British capital.

    Brandon Derrick, founder and CEO of ClicCash, Antigua and Barbuda’s first ever registered Payment Service Provider (PSP-0001), took part in a packed three-day schedule of engagements hosted by top diplomatic missions, trade bodies, and global startup networks, as part of a delegation from the McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship. The Montreal-based business incubator has supported ClicCash’s rapid growth since its launch earlier this year, opening doors for the Antiguan startup to access networks across North America and Europe.

    The first major engagement came on Thursday, when Derrick was invited to deliver a presentation at Quebec House, the official London base of the Government of Québec’s UK delegation. He introduced ClicCash to an audience of European entrepreneurs, trade officials, and potential investors, framing the firm as a fully regulated, Caribbean-built digital payments platform designed specifically to meet the needs of regional consumers and businesses. Brent Scotland, Second Secretary at the Antigua and Barbuda High Commission to the UK, joined Derrick for the event to film a special feature highlighting ClicCash’s work. While High Commissioner Her Excellency Karen-Mae Hill, OBE, was in Antigua for official engagements at the time, she extended formal endorsement and support for the startup’s global outreach.

    The following day, ClicCash claimed a spot at an invite-only fintech roundtable held at Canada House, home of the Canadian High Commission to the United Kingdom. The discussion, hosted by Sanjay Purohit, Canada’s Trade Commissioner for Information, Communications and Technology, brought together leading emerging startups and senior entrepreneurship leaders from McGill University. ClicCash stood out as the only Caribbean-founded company in the room, a fitting milestone for a firm that maintains operations in both Antigua and Barbuda and Canada, with a core mission to build a financial connectivity bridge between the Caribbean region and North America.

    Speaking after the roundtable, Derrick emphasized the significance of the moment for his home country. “To stand in these rooms representing Antigua and Barbuda, as a homegrown, fully regulated payments company, is a proud moment, and it belongs to our whole country,” he said. “We built ClicCash in Antigua, for the Caribbean, and we are now building a real bridge between our region and Canada. The interest we are seeing abroad confirms what we have believed from day one: world-class financial technology exists in Antigua and Barbuda.”

    Scotland echoed that pride in the startup’s achievement, noting that the firm had already exceeded early expectations just months after its public launch. “As an Antiguan and Barbudan, I am very proud. ClicCash represented us really well, and I was struck by how well thought out the presentation was. It is wonderful to see the success they are already having so soon after launching. They are doing great work, and we are very proud of them,” he said.

    To cap off the week’s engagements, Derrick attended the Wings for Charity gala on Friday evening, hosted in support of the Halo Foundation — the leading Antiguan charitable initiative led by His Excellency Sir Rodney Williams, GCMG, Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda. Held at The Chancery Rosewood, the luxury new hotel located in the former United States Embassy building on London’s Grosvenor Square, the gala was convened ahead of upcoming high-level Commonwealth meetings, drawing ministers, senior diplomats, and High Commissioners from across the Commonwealth to raise funds for the foundation’s community work. As a guest of the Antigua and Barbuda High Commission, Derrick had the opportunity to meet personally with Governor-General Sir Rodney Williams and High Commissioner Hill during the event.

    Founded and registered with Antigua and Barbuda’s Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP), ClicCash officially launched in the twin-island nation in February 2026. In just six months, the platform has scaled to serve dozens of local businesses and nearly 1,000 individual user wallets, simplifying digital transactions for Caribbean consumers. Unlike traditional digital payment methods, ClicCash requires no physical bank card or PIN; users can send and receive payments using just a smartphone and a scannable QR code, making digital transactions accessible to users across the region’s varied economic landscape. Often described as the Caribbean’s homegrown answer to the successful mobile money revolutions that transformed emerging markets in Kenya and Bangladesh, ClicCash’s core mission is to accelerate the Caribbean’s transition from cash-based to cashless economies through accessible, regulatory-compliant, and inclusive financial technology.

  • Future Caribbean launches $140K AI ‘buildathon’ to spur innovation

    Future Caribbean launches $140K AI ‘buildathon’ to spur innovation

    A groundbreaking new initiative is positioning the Caribbean as a central player in the global agentic AI revolution, with non-profit group Future Caribbean launching a $140,000 agentic AI buildathon to cultivate the next generation of Caribbean-founded technology startups.

    The competition was officially unveiled during the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Invest Sustainability Week 2026 held in Barbados, marking a key milestone in regional efforts to embed the Caribbean in cutting-edge global tech development. Over a 21-day intensive sprint, 40 selected teams drawn from the Caribbean and across the globe will collaborate to develop open-source agentic AI systems tailored to address the most pressing challenges and unlock untapped economic opportunities across the region.

    Unlike traditional generative AI tools that only respond to user prompts or generate on-demand predictions, agentic AI represents a major evolutionary step in artificial intelligence. These autonomous systems are designed to independently pursue pre-defined goals, take proactive actions, and adapt over time. Each AI agent can perceive surrounding conditions, analyze complex scenarios, map out multi-step workflows, integrate external tools and complementary systems, execute planned actions, and continuously reflect on outcomes to refine its performance.

    The buildathon is structured around 10 key focus tracks aligned with the Caribbean’s core economic and social priorities, spanning financial inclusion, healthcare access, tourism innovation, sustainable food systems, climate risk mitigation, disaster response coordination, and blue economy development. Teams selected to compete will gain access to high-end NVIDIA H200-Class GPU computing power, plus one-on-one mentorship and targeted support from a network of more than 25 experienced regional and international industry advisors.

    Lily Dash, founder of Future Caribbean and co-founder of ACTAI Advisors, explained that the initiative grew out of a core belief that the Caribbean deserves a leading seat at the table shaping the future of global technology. “Future Caribbean started from a conviction: the Caribbean is one of the world’s great opportunity regions. Technology is now the largest driver of economic value creation in the modern global economy. If you have an idea, if you have been building, this is your moment,” Dash said. “The Caribbean should not watch this transformation happen — it should help shape it. Future Caribbean exists to give builders from across the Caribbean and around the world a place to build systems that strengthen the oxygen lines within the region and between the region and global markets.”

    Bill Tai, chairman of ACTAI Global and founding partner of Future Caribbean, emphasized that the rise of agentic AI creates an unprecedented opening for small teams and emerging entrepreneurs in the region. “Agentic AI is creating the biggest wave of opportunity we’ve seen in decades, giving small teams a level of leverage that was previously unimaginable. The Future Caribbean Buildathon is placing the region directly in the path of that wave by connecting innovators, governments, investors, and global partners to build solutions that matter,” Tai said.

    Leaders of partnering development organizations echoed that the buildathon demonstrates the power of cross-sector regional collaboration to drive inclusive tech growth. Leonardo Mazzei, head of environmental and social governance and stakeholder engagement at IDB Invest, noted that the initiative breaks down barriers to turning early ideas into scalable, real-world impact. “By bringing together entrepreneurs, technology leaders, investors, institutions and development partners, the initiative creates new opportunities for talent, ideas and technologies to move from concept to deployment and scale,” Mazzei said.

    Brian Bogart, director of the World Food Programme’s Caribbean Multi-Country Office, added that AI innovation has critical potential to boost climate and food resilience for small island developing states like those across the Caribbean. “I look forward to engaging with teams working on Food Security and Disaster Coordination as they explore practical ideas and potential applications for the Caribbean and other vulnerable regions facing similar challenges,” Bogart said.

    Applications for the competition are open through July 3 on the official Future Caribbean website. The 40 selected competing teams will be announced on July 17, and the 21-day build sprint will run from July 17 to August 7. Competition winners will be named on September 1, with top-performing teams advancing to a Caribbean Investor Showcase and a high-profile investor pitch day at the New York Stock Exchange later that month.

  • Jaarplan: internetgebruik groeit, maar 138.000 Surinamers zijn nog altijd offline

    Jaarplan: internetgebruik groeit, maar 138.000 Surinamers zijn nog altijd offline

    Suriname has made striking progress in its digital transformation in recent years, but the benefits of this growth have yet to reach a significant share of its population, according to the country’s 2026 Financial and Economic Plan. Official data outlined in the plan shows that more than 500,000 Surinamese currently have access to internet connectivity, leaving an estimated 138,000 residents still disconnected from digital networks. To address this gap, the Surinamese government has announced plans for targeted investments over the coming years focused on expanding digital inclusion, upgrading universal internet access, and boosting population-wide digital literacy skills.

    The plan identifies the information and communications technology (ICT) sector as one of the most high-potential growth pillars of Suriname’s economy. Current national data puts the country’s internet penetration rate at 78.4%, with the total number of active mobile connections exceeding 943,000. As access expands, digital technology has increasingly reshaped core areas of daily life, from how Surinamese communicate and access education to how they engage with public services and launch small businesses.

    Despite these overall gains, government officials have flagged key persistent barriers that are slowing more equitable digital growth. The most pressing challenge remains the steep cost of internet and telecommunications services. The 2026 plan notes that Suriname’s broadband costs remain among the highest in the Caribbean and Latin American region, pricing out low-income households that struggle to afford consistent access to essential digital services.

    A second major gap is the stark digital divide between urban centers and rural districts. Households in the capital Paramaribo and along the coastal plain are far more likely to have access to reliable fixed-line broadband connections, while residents of inland rural areas are almost entirely dependent on expensive mobile data as their only source of internet connectivity. To address this uneven access, the government plans to roll out broadband infrastructure to underserved rural districts including Marowijne and Brokopondo.

    Low levels of advanced digital skills across the population also represent a critical bottleneck. While most active internet users can carry out basic tasks such as sending and receiving messages, official statistics show that only a small share of Suriname’s population uses online banking or has foundational coding and digital problem-solving skills. The plan emphasizes that sustained investment in digital literacy is essential to prepare the workforce to participate in a rapidly digitizing national economy.

    Looking ahead, the Surinamese government has set ambitious measurable targets to guide its digital transformation agenda. It aims to push national internet penetration above 85%, reduce average internet service costs by at least 10%, develop a comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy, support the growth of local ICT startups, and expand the range of digital public services available to citizens. The long-term vision outlined in the plan is to position Suriname as a regional digital hub, an outcome that planners say will require sustained additional investment in digital infrastructure, tech-focused education, innovation ecosystem development, and expanded international cooperation.

  • Future Caribbean Launches Regional AI Buildathon

    Future Caribbean Launches Regional AI Buildathon

    The Caribbean region is set to host a groundbreaking new regional initiative that leverages artificial intelligence to address pressing local and global challenges, with applications now open for the first-ever Future Caribbean Artificial Intelligence Buildathon.

    Conceived as a collaborative platform that unites cross-sector innovators across the Caribbean, the buildathon brings together a diverse range of participants: startup founders, software developers, academic AI researchers, post-secondary students, and independent technology innovators. Unlike traditional hackathons that focus on rapid prototype development over a short period, this regional program is tailored to cultivate AI-powered solutions that directly respond to the unique challenges Caribbean communities face, while also contributing insights to global problem-solving efforts.

    At its core, the initiative pursues two overarching goals. First, it seeks to elevate the Caribbean’s global profile as a competitive, relevant hub for cutting-edge technological innovation, breaking the long-held misconception that meaningful advanced tech development is concentrated exclusively in North America, Europe, and East Asia. Second, it aims to unlock tangible local opportunities: nurturing emerging tech talent, supporting new technology-focused entrepreneurship ventures, and driving inclusive, sustainable economic growth rooted in digital innovation across the region.

    Aspiring participants have until July 3, 2026 to submit their applications, with no restrictions placed on cross-island or cross-border teams that bring together diverse skills and perspectives from across the Caribbean region. Organizers have confirmed that additional details about program structure, judging criteria, and benefits for winning teams are available in the full official press release, which can be accessed by refreshing the event page or downloading the document via the official download link provided on the event announcement.

    For a region that has long grappled with brain drain of local tech talent and limited investment in advanced digital innovation, the Future Caribbean AI Buildathon marks a notable step toward repositioning the Caribbean as an active contributor to the global AI ecosystem, rather than just a passive consumer of technology developed elsewhere.

  • Facebook and IG are currently down for millions of users

    Facebook and IG are currently down for millions of users

    Thousands of Meta platform users across the globe have reported sudden, unexpected access disruptions, with many saying they were automatically logged out of their personal and professional accounts without warning. Other users have shared that they encountered persistent error codes when trying to load feed pages, send messages, or use core platform features, leaving them unable to connect with contacts or access their stored content.

    Independent technology analysts who reviewed the widespread user reports have clarified that outages of this nature are most often temporary service disruptions, rather than permanent account issues or security breaches. To resolve the access problems for individual users, experts suggest a range of quick at-home fixes: reloading the affected web page, fully closing and restarting the Meta mobile application, clearing the browser or app’s cached data, or simply waiting for Meta’s engineering team to restore full service on the backend.

    As of the time this report was published, Meta has not issued any official public statement addressing the outage, nor has the company shared details on what caused the disruption, how many users were affected, or an estimated timeline for full service restoration.

  • Huawei, govt in talks about technology to catch illegal garbage dumpers

    Huawei, govt in talks about technology to catch illegal garbage dumpers

    On Wednesday, June 10, 2026, a high-level meeting between representatives of Chinese global tech giant Huawei and Guyana’s Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development marked a new step forward in the Caribbean nation’s fight against pervasive illegal waste dumping and poor waste management.

    The meeting, which came on the heels of a series of inter-agency consultations led by Local Government Minister Priya Manickchand, brought together Huawei Guyana’s delegation — led by Country Manager Ji Shilei and including team members Keoma Pearson, Lian Yikang, and Leeky Liu — and a cross-functional government team. The ministry side was headed by IT head Godfrey Munroe, acting on behalf of Minister Manickchand, and included Senior IT Officer Kishana Chang, Sanitation Director Satrohan Nauth, and Legal Officer Murtland Haley.

    According to an official statement released by the ministry after the talks, Huawei presented a full suite of innovative potential solutions tailored to Guyana’s waste management challenges. These tools focus on enhanced surveillance, real-time monitoring, and data-backed enforcement frameworks designed to deter bad actors and effectively respond to ongoing illegal dumping activities. Discussions centered on how these cutting-edge technologies can be seamlessly integrated into Guyana’s existing environmental governance infrastructure to boost both regulatory compliance and overall management outcomes.

    This collaborative exploration is part of a broader, coordinated national strategy rolled out by the ministry to address the long-standing problem of unregulated waste disposal. Prior to this meeting, Minister Manickchand had convened high-level discussions with core national stakeholders, including the Guyana Police Force, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and representatives of the municipal court system, to align on a multi-agency approach. The government’s end goal is to deploy a comprehensive smart technology ecosystem, backed by updated, robust legal frameworks, that can accurately detect, track, and penalize individuals and entities that engage in illegal garbage dumping.

    The push for urgent action follows a recent site tour by Minister Manickchand, where she encountered a massive illegal mound of construction waste. Following the visit, she publicly vowed zero tolerance for unregulated waste disposal, pledging strict enforcement action to crack down on repeat offenders.

    For Huawei, this discussion represents another entry point for the company to support national development initiatives in Guyana, where it has already established a strong operational footprint. As a leading global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices, Huawei operates in more than 170 countries worldwide, and has previously delivered key components for Guyana’s Safe City Programme and deployed national speed radar camera detection systems. Major local telecommunications providers including Digicel Guyana and One Communications Guyana also rely on Huawei equipment for their network operations.

    Government officials emphasized that the exploratory talks with Huawei mark a meaningful milestone in Guyana’s efforts to modernize its environmental management systems. If advanced, the partnership is expected to strengthen regulatory enforcement capacity, reduce the public health risks associated with unregulated waste, and improve overall community well-being across the country.

  • Faster Flow Internet lands

    Faster Flow Internet lands

    Jamaica has officially entered the 5G era, as telecommunications provider Flow flipped the switch on the country’s first next-generation mobile network on Thursday following a $74 million investment in infrastructure and spectrum. Thousands of customers can immediately access dramatically faster mobile internet, though the rollout brings a gradual transition for most subscribers as the company works to lower adoption barriers across the island.

    The launch event, held at Flow’s Kingston headquarters, was attended by company leadership and Telecommunications Minister Daryl Vaz, marking what both public and private stakeholders call a transformative milestone for Jamaica’s digital and economic growth. The new network already reaches approximately 70% of Flow’s customer base, with coverage currently live in major population centers including Kingston, Portmore, Spanish Town, May Pen and North Coast communities. Flow plans to extend coverage to additional locations including Mandeville, Santa Cruz, Black River, Savanna-la-Mar, Bull Bay and Morant Bay by the end of June.

    While wide infrastructure coverage is already in place, access remains limited to customers with both 5G-compatible smartphones and upgraded SIM cards. Data from Flow shows that only 25% of its subscribers currently meet both requirements, meaning three-quarters of customers will need to take proactive steps to connect to the faster service.

    Flow’s Head of Marketing Latoy Lawrence noted that many consumers may already own 5G-capable handsets without realizing their older SIM cards block access. To smooth the transition, the company is offering free SIM upgrades at all 15 of its company-owned stores nationwide. Customers swapping out non-LTE SIM cards will also receive bonus data, and postpaid subscribers qualify for bill discounts. To address the barrier of upgrading devices, Flow will soon expand its inventory of affordable 5G phones and introduce flexible payment plans, allowing customers to spread costs over 12 or 24 months, with special discounts and rewards for new and existing buyers.

    This staged rollout reflects a common challenge for 5G deployments around the world: even after operators invest billions in new infrastructure, mass adoption depends on consumers updating their personal devices and access cards. Flow has framed its customer support initiatives as a core part of the project, designed to eliminate unnecessary barriers to access.

    Beyond faster download speeds, the $74 million investment breaks down to $50 million for nationwide network upgrades and more than $24 million for spectrum acquisition, following months of extensive modernization work across the country. Stephen Price, vice-president and general manager of Flow Jamaica, emphasized that the 5G rollout is far more than a consumer telecom upgrade — it is a foundational investment in Jamaica’s national development.

    “We have seen growing ambition across our government, businesses, entrepreneurs, and young innovators who want to build, create, and compete globally,” Price said at the launch. “This 5G infrastructure supports these ambitions, enabling smart operations and innovation across every sector.”

    In addition to faster mobile internet, the network includes upgrades to core communication services: improved call quality and reliability via Voice over Wi-Fi, Voice over LTE, and extra backup systems at mobile cell sites. Price added that 5G will act as a catalyst for the next phase of Jamaica’s digital economy, noting “5G is a game-changer for businesses and ordinary citizens in Jamaica, and we are deeply committed to enabling this future.”

    Minister Vaz welcomed the launch as a key milestone for the Jamaican government’s broader digital transformation agenda. “The roll-out of 5G marks a pivotal point where our digital vision takes concrete form,” Vaz said. “The Government has made digital transformation a top priority — we have introduced digital IDs, streamlined government processes, and explored emerging technologies to ensure Jamaica benefits from modern infrastructure.”

    Vaz highlighted that the new network will unlock new opportunities across critical sectors including education, healthcare, small business entrepreneurship, and public services, while driving sustained innovation and economic growth across the island.

  • Dominican Republic launches Cyber Cluster to strengthen digital resilience

    Dominican Republic launches Cyber Cluster to strengthen digital resilience

    In a landmark move to shore up its digital defenses amid a global surge in cyber threats, the Dominican Republic has officially inaugurated the Cyber Cluster Dominican Republic, a groundbreaking cross-sector public-private partnership designed to strengthen the nation’s cybersecurity ecosystem, drive technological innovation, nurture specialized skilled talent, and deepen collaboration across the country’s technology industry.

    The initiative comes at a critical juncture for digital security worldwide: rising frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks have put nations across the globe on alert, with international analysts projecting that annual global losses from cybercrime will skyrocket to $10.5 trillion by 2025. This alarming forecast underscores the urgent need for coordinated, multi-stakeholder cybersecurity strategies — a gap the new Cyber Cluster was created to fill for the Dominican Republic, with the core goal of boosting the country’s overall digital resilience.

    Bringing together many of the sector’s most prominent global and regional players, the Cyber Cluster counts industry leaders including IQTEK, Mastercard, Sophos, Sofistic, ESET, GBM, Digito, Fortinet, and Cloudflare among its founding members. The initiative also receives formal backing from two key regional and national institutions: the Dominican Republic’s own National Cybersecurity Center (CNCS) and the Latin America and Caribbean Cyber Competence Centre (LAC4), aligning local efforts with broader regional cybersecurity capacity-building goals.

    Governance of the new organization is led by a founding board headed by Niurka Hernández from IQTEK, who will serve as the cluster’s president. Cristian Rosa of ESET takes on the role of vice president, with additional board seats filled by representatives from Mastercard, GBM, ECIJA, Digito, and Fortinet. Rosa’s appointment highlights ESET’s deep commitment to the initiative, bringing decades of specialized expertise in cybersecurity research, threat detection and analysis, and digital literacy outreach across the Latin American region to the table.

    The Cyber Cluster has laid out four core strategic objectives that will guide its work: facilitating open knowledge exchange between cybersecurity stakeholders, promoting the adoption of industry-wide best practices, expanding accessible cybersecurity education and training programs, and strengthening interconnected cooperation between private businesses, government agencies, academic institutions, and independent industry specialists. Initiative leaders noted that the cluster will not only speed up the country’s transition to a safer digital economy but also work to position the Dominican Republic as the leading regional hub for cybersecurity innovation and advanced technological development.

    The official launch was marked by a signing ceremony hosted at the INDOTEL Digital Culture Center in Santo Domingo, which drew hundreds of representatives from the Dominican Republic’s business, technology, and public institutional sectors. Speaking at the event, organizers emphasized that the creation of the Cyber Cluster marks a transformative milestone toward building a more secure, resilient, and collaborative digital ecosystem that benefits all users and stakeholders across the Dominican Republic.

  • SERHA hospitals modernised with advanced VoIP telephone system

    SERHA hospitals modernised with advanced VoIP telephone system

    KINGSTON, Jamaica — The South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) has marked a key step forward in its digital infrastructure overhaul, completing the first phase of a cutting-edge Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone system deployment across its core clinical and administrative sites.

    The upgraded communication network is now fully operational at two of the region’s busiest healthcare providers: Kingston Public Hospital and Victoria Jubilee Hospital, as well as SERHA’s regional headquarters and corporate offices located in New Kingston. This new platform replaces decades-old traditional copper-wire telephone infrastructure, delivering a far more efficient, reliable, and unified communication ecosystem designed to strengthen both frontline healthcare delivery and back-office administrative work.

    In an official public statement, SERHA emphasized that this digital investment represents another critical milestone in the authority’s ongoing campaign to modernize its aging healthcare infrastructure. Outdated communication tools have long created bottlenecks for care teams, and the new system ensures clinical and administrative staff have access to the modern tools they need to deliver prompt, high-quality care to patients across the region.

    Unlike legacy telephone networks, the internet-based VoIP system offers significant improvements to cross-team and cross-facility connectivity. It delivers crisper, more consistent call quality, reduces dropped connections, and streamlines information sharing between departments—a benefit that is particularly transformative in emergency rooms and high-volume clinical settings, where seconds can mean the difference between positive and negative patient outcomes. Rapid, uninterrupted information exchange, a core requirement for life-saving care, is now far more accessible across all connected facilities.

    Beyond improved care delivery, the new system addresses common pain points of traditional phone networks, drastically cutting the service interruptions that have previously disrupted hospital operations. It is also projected to generate substantial long-term cost savings for the public health authority, driven by higher operational efficiency, more strategic allocation of existing resources, and far lower ongoing maintenance costs compared to aging legacy infrastructure.

    SERHA has already outlined plans for the next phase of the digital upgrade project. In the coming period, the authority will roll out the VoIP system to three additional major regional facilities: Bustamante Hospital for Children, Spanish Town Hospital, and National Chest Hospital. Once complete, the expanded network will unify communications across all of SERHA’s key sites, creating a fully connected digital health ecosystem that supports coordinated care across the entire region.