Communications in Haiti
Encyclopedia
Despite low literacy levels (52%) and wide-ranging poverty, Haiti
managed to increase its mobile phone
coverage rate from 6% to 30% in just one year (May 2006 to May 2007). Haiti is now the driving force in the mobile phone growth rate in the Caribbean
. Radio
still remains the primary information medium for most Haitians.
Radio
Radio
broadcast
stations:
AM 41, FM 26, shortwave 0 (1999)
Radios:
500,000 (1997)
Television
Television
broadcast stations:
4 in Port-au-Prince
(plus a cable TV system) (2005)
Televisions:
38,120 (1997)
Telephone
Telephones - main lines in use:
160,000 (2010)
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.
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 demise started with the Prosper Avril
government which spent Teleco's profits on politically-motivated campaigns and outright graft. The practice continued with the Aristide government.
Telephones - mobile cellular:
3.2 million (2010) or 35% coverage rate.
There are three major cell phone providers in Haiti: Digicel
, Comcel
, 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/Worldcom 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 - that is a cell phone coverage rate of 6% for a population of 8.2 million. Then, Digicel entered the market in May 2006, and revolutionized the cell phone industry with low prices and attractive services so that after just 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 October 2010, Digicel has about 2.2 millions cell phone subscribers in Haiti. In May 2007, Digicel started offering two BlackBerry
services with Internet
, one for enterprises and one for individuals.
Telephone 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.
There are 5 Internet service provider
s serving the country. Among them are Multilink, H@inet and Access Haiti. In June 2010, Viettel (Natcom) announced that it would provide high speed internet throughout the country by laying 3100 km of optical fiber
.
The Haitian telecommunications authority, CONATEL, has decided in October 2010 to allow the introduction of 3G services by the mobile telephone service providers. This will enable them to deploy faster mobile internet access speeds throughout their network than what is currently available with GPRS/EDGE.
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
managed to increase its mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
coverage rate from 6% to 30% in just one year (May 2006 to May 2007). Haiti is now the driving force in the mobile phone growth rate in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. Radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
still remains the primary information medium for most Haitians.
RadioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
RadioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
stations:
AM 41, FM 26, shortwave 0 (1999)
Radios:
500,000 (1997)
TelevisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
TelevisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
broadcast stations:
4 in Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
(plus a cable TV system) (2005)
Televisions:
38,120 (1997)
TelephoneTelephoneThe telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
Telephones - main lines in use:160,000 (2010)
Natcom, the result of the privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
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
Viettel
Viettel may refer to any organasations:*Viettel Mobile, a Vietnamese major mobile network operator headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam*Viettel FC, a Vietnamese football club based in Hanoi. formerly known as Thể Công....
bought a 60% share, with the Haitian government keeping the remaining 40% of the company.
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 demise started with the Prosper Avril
Prosper Avril
Prosper Avril is a Haitian political figure who was President of Haiti from 1988 to 1990. A trusted member of François Duvalier's Presidential Guard and adviser to Jean-Claude Duvalier, Lt. Gen. Avril led the September 1988 Haitian coup d'état against a transition military government installed...
government which spent Teleco's profits on politically-motivated campaigns and outright graft. The practice continued with the Aristide government.
Telephones - mobile cellular:
3.2 million (2010) or 35% coverage rate.
There are three major cell phone providers in Haiti: Digicel
Digicel
Digicel is a mobile phone network provider covering parts of Oceania, Central America, and the Caribbean regions. The company is owned by Irishman Denis O'Brien, is incorporated in Bermuda, and based in Jamaica. It provides mobile services in 26 countries and territories throughout the Caribbean...
, Comcel
Comcel Haiti
Communication Cellulaire d'Haiti, S.A. or ', now known as Voilà, is a telephone company in Haiti which primarily deals in mobile phone service. It is a subsidiary of US-based Trilogy International Partners.-History:...
, and Haitel
Haitel
Haiti Telecommunication International, S.A. or Haitel is a Haitian mobile and wireless phone and Internet service provider using CDMA technology.-History:...
.
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/Worldcom 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 - that is a cell phone coverage rate of 6% for a population of 8.2 million. Then, Digicel entered the market in May 2006, and revolutionized the cell phone industry with low prices and attractive services so that after just 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 October 2010, Digicel has about 2.2 millions cell phone subscribers in Haiti. In May 2007, Digicel started offering two BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
services with Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, one for enterprises and one for individuals.
Telephone system:
Domestic facilities are barely adequate. International facilities are slightly better
domestic:
coaxial cable
Coaxial cable
Coaxial cable, or coax, has an inner conductor surrounded by a flexible, tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. The term coaxial comes from the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing the same geometric axis...
and microwave radio relay trunk service
international:
satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
(Atlantic Ocean)
InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
Haiti's country code top-level domainCountry code top-level domain
A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory....
is .ht
.ht
.ht is the Internet country code top-level domain for Haiti.-External links:* *...
. It is managed by Consortium FDS/RDDH. As of March 2009, it had 1155 domain names registered.
There are 5 Internet service provider
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s serving the country. Among them are Multilink, H@inet and Access Haiti. In June 2010, Viettel (Natcom) announced that it would provide high speed internet throughout the country by laying 3100 km of optical fiber
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
.
The Haitian telecommunications authority, CONATEL, has decided in October 2010 to allow the introduction of 3G services by the mobile telephone service providers. This will enable them to deploy faster mobile internet access speeds throughout their network than what is currently available with GPRS/EDGE.