MAP > Internet Providers in Haiti

Haiti’s social as well as the economic indicators have remained far lower than average for Latin America as well as the Caribbean. Recent years of the turmoil, economic and the natural disasters, the most recent the Hurricane Matthew, that has hit this Island in the year 2016, have gone own to stifle most of the sectors of economy, and this includes telecom sector that remains one of the least developed globally, Regulator reported that the Hurricane Matthew had caused a damage that is estimated to be worth million in damage to the equipment owned by the Natcom, Access Haiti and Digicel.

In the internet market, the poor fixed-line systems obliged most of the businesses to go on and rely on the satellite as well as the wireless technologies. But, the launch of services by the Natcom in late 2011 has offered a very significant boost to this sector. This company in the subsequent years built 3 international gateways and the quadrupled international connectivity. Well, as a result, the broadband services are more readily available, and the Natcom has become the wholesale provider for a small number of the other ISPs in the market. Nonetheless, there remain very significant barriers to the fixed line broadband development, not minimal of which is low-income level among majority of the population, the low PC  penetration as well as the perennial problem of the equipment theft. Despite the Natcom having a well-built fiber backbone running to the dome, 6500 kilometers that is steadily developing the fixed-line broadband sector, the practical challenges mean that for the majority of the people as well as the business connectivity gets to be achieved through the mobile networks.

Natcom has also been able to introduce the competitive boost to the mobile sector in the year 2011, though this was a huge setback to some degree by Digicel groups acquisition of number two player, Voila, as well as the integration of latter’s mobile network in late 2012. Well, with the collapse of the third operator, HaiTel in the mid-2013, this left the Digicel with market domination of around 74% market share of the total subscribers. Nonetheless, economies of scale combined with the Digicel’s interest in being able to promote the LTE and the innovative mobile data services such as the mobile banking must be considered, therefore ensuring the need to ensure that the internet connectivity is enhanced even in the rural areas in the coming years and also to enable the communities to ensure greater use of internet services, where the fixed line infrastructure remains not adequate.