Potential investment schemes, he said, could include call centres for inbound and outbound services, software development, data conversion and imaging and interactive training and distance education programmes.

He was speaking on Monday at the official launch ceremony of the 9th Telecommunications Policy Seminar of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, being held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.

His announcement signalled a total of 396 licences signed to date: 72 Internet service providers (ISPs); seven ISPs for subscriber television operators (STVOs); 62 international voice service providers; 35 domestic carriers; 44 domestic voice service providers; 32 data service providers; 10 free trade zone carriers; 8 free trade zone service providers and 68 international (voice/data/transit) carriers.

Jamaica's teledensity has risen from 30 per cent to over 80 per cent since liberalisation, observed Mr. Paulwell, placing the country in the upper access category of the International Telecommunication Union's Digital Access Index.  Jamaica has 1.8 million cellular users and 500,000 land lines.

According to Mr. Paulwell, the granting of two undersea fibre optic cable network licences to Fibralink Jamaica Ltd and Trans-Caribbean Cable Company Ltd, will open up competition in the routing of data and voice traffic into Jamaica, through non-satellite infrastructures.  He claimed the competition will result in a deduction of at least 70 per cent in the cost of high speed broadband Internet and other data.

"This decision by Government to award these undersea fibre licences is a significant move that will effectively end the monopoly on fibre into Jamaica, taking us closer to our goal of having the infrastructure to suggest us being a fully knowledge-based society," he said of the networks which, he added, would be constructed within 10 to 12 months.

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