Telecommunications in the Bahamas

Telecommunications in the Bahamas includes telephones, radio, television, and the Internet.

Status
Route of the ARCOS-1 fiber optic submarine communications cable. 22 is Crooked Island, 23 is Cat Island, and 24 is Nassau, Bahamas.
Telecommunications in the Bahamas
Telephones: 137,000 fixed lines, 141st in the world (2012).[1]

254,000 mobile cellular lines, 176th in the world (2012).[1]

  • general assessment: modern facilities;[1]
  • domestic: totally automatic system; highly developed;[1]
  • domestic submarine cables: the Bahamas Domestic Submarine Network links 14 of the islands;[1]
  • international: landing point for the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System (ARCOS-1) fiber-optic submarine cable that provides links to South and Central America, parts of the Caribbean, and the US;[1]
  • satellites: two earth stations (2007).[1]
Calling code: +1 242[1]
Radio: about 15 radio stations operating with BCB operating a multi-channel radio broadcasting network alongside privately owned radio stations (2007).[1]
Television: 2 stations (one in Nassau and one in Freeport, a rebroadcast transmitter, commercially run Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas (BCB); multi-channel cable TV subscription service is available (2007).[1]
Internet: 226,855 users, 152nd in the world (2012).[2]
71.7% of the population, 47th in the world (2012).[2]
  8,730 fixed broadband subscriptions, 52nd in the world (2012).[3]
2.8% of the population, 120th in the world (2012).[3]
  20,661 hosts, 117th in the world (2012).[4]
121,856 IPv4 addresses allocated, 385 for every 1,000 people (2012).[5]
Top level domain: .bs[1]
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

Internet censorship and surveillance

Access to the Internet is unrestricted.[6] There were no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without judicial oversight.[7]

The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. An independent press combined with a relatively effective—albeit extremely backlogged—judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system ensures freedom of speech and press. The constitution prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice.[7] Strict and antiquated libel laws dating to British legal codes are seldom invoked.[6]

In April 2013, the Bahamas Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade warned that the police would press charges against people who post “lewd” or “obscene” pictures on social media websites and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson announced that the government was working on legislation that will police information posted on the Internet. "We have to balance freedom of the press with protecting the public,” she added.[8] Also in April Rodney Moncur was charged with "committing a grossly indecent act" by posting autopsy photographs of a man who died in police custody on his Facebook page.[9]

Phone calls to the Bahamas are monitored by the National Security Agency's MYSTIC program.

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/.

  1. "Communications:: Bahamas, The", The World Factbook, U.S. Central Agency, 28 October 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  2. "Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000–2012", International Telecommunications Union (Geneva), June 2013, retrieved 22 June 2013
  3. "Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012", Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE, International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved on 29 June 2013.
  4. "Internet hosts", CIA World Factbook, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 2012, accessed 17 June 2013
  5. Select Formats Archived 13 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Country RFI IP Blocks. Accessed on 2 April 2012. Note: Site is said to be updated daily.
  6. "Bahamas", Freedom in the World 2013, Freedom House. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  7. "The Bahamas", Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 22 March 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  8. "Offend someone online in Grenada... go to jail", Caribbean News Now, 1 July 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  9. "Rodney Moncur Charged In Court Over Facebook Pictures", Lamech Johnson, Tribune 242, 5 April 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
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