Jamaica ranks among the rich in mobile access
Published:Friday | September 7, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Mobile access and affordability in Jamaica resembles that of a developed nation, according to World Bank researchers.
Jamaica was isolated with a group of other nations in which their mid-level incomes contradicted their mobile access and affordability.
The World Bank report, Maximising Mobile, Information and Communication 2012, stated that all high-income economies scored within the top-third of a mobile index, but that some "countries exceeded that value although with much lower incomes".
These include the Russian Federation, South Africa, Argentina, Jamaica, Jordan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritius and Thailand.
Jamaica has about 122 active phones for every 100 people, which equates to one of the highest mobile subscriber densities in the world.
Mobile service is dominated by the Digicel and LIME networks, respectively.
Also, Jamaicans spend three per cent of their income on a basket of mobile rates in 2010 compared with 4.3 per cent in 2005, the report stated. The basket involves core calling rates and even costs for SIM cards.
The level of spend is significant when compared with other nations, including Nicaragua and Rwanda, in which the mobile basket costs 14.3 per cent and 30 per cent of per capita income, respectively.
Within Latin America and the Caribbean, Jamaica ranks within the midpoint at 15th among some 29 regional nations captured in the survey. The cheapest mobile basket of rates in the region in 2010 were Costa Rica at 0.6 per cent, Trinidad and Tobago at 0.9 per cent, Bahamas at 0.9 per cent and Barbados at one per cent.
The World Bank data stops at 2010, but since this summer, a significant development occurred that could see a rise in Jamaica's ranking. The key mobile interconnect rates were slashed by 40 per cent from J$9 per minute to J$5 per minute after a near decade-long fight.
The power to set the interim rate was conferred on Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) with the passage and signing of the Telecommuni-cations (Amendment) Act 2012.
Mobile termination rates are the fees mobile telephone companies charge other carriers to terminate calls on their networks. It resulted in the two mobile companies dropping their rates by some two-thirds overnight.
"We believe that our rates could be among the lowest in the region. These rates are decidedly low as we are convinced that the rates were kept artificially high previously. Still, we believe these rates could be even lower and anticipate such a result when the Long-run Incremental Cost study being conducted by the OUR is complete," said LIME in response to Financial Gleaner queries.
"Low rates are better for the economy, the recent Consumer Price Index supports this."
In July, prices deflated. The headline inflation rate came out at negative 0.3 per cent, due largely to falling mobile call rates, which depressed the 'communication' index by 42 per cent, according to Statin.
"Mobile rates in Jamaica have come a long way over the past 11 years. When Digicel launched in Jamaica in 2001, we challenged competition and introduced very competitive rates. Today, Digicel remains committed to continuing to lead the way in offering value to mobile users across Jamaica," said Jacqueline Burrell-Clarke, public relations manager, Digicel Jamaica.
It is this type of jockeying among the rivals that led Planning Institute of Jamaica to conclude at its economic briefing in August that the drop in call rates would have a deflationary effect on the economy.
With some six billion subscriptions worldwide, about three-quarters of humanity has access to a mobile phone, the World Bank report stated.
"Mobiles are arguably the most ubiquitous modern technology in some developing countries, more people have access to a mobile phone than to clean water, a bank account, or even electricity," the World Bank said.
Mobile communications now offer major opportunities to advance human development - from providing basic access to education or health information to making cash payments and stimulating citizen involvement in democratic processes, the report said.