Telecommunications in the United States Virgin Islands
Communications in the United States Virgin Islands
The following statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Telephone
Telephones - main lines in use: 74,200 (2008) The traditional wire line provider in the United States Virgin Islands is Viya. Viya is a subsidiary of Atlantic Tele-Network of Beverly, Massachusetts.[1]
Telephones - mobile cellular: 80,300 (2005)
The islands are served by Viya, Claro Puerto Rico, and mainland U.S. carriers AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA. Although Verizon Wireless serves nearby Puerto Rico as domestic service, calls from the USVI are considered roaming and are charged nearly two dollars per minute, far more than calls made while roaming in Canada or Europe. Text messages (SMS), however, are treated as domestic, while multimedia messages (MMS) are unavailable for Verizon customers.
Telephone system:
- general assessment: modern system with total digital switching, uses fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay
- domestic: full range of services available
- international: submarine cable connections to US, the Caribbean, Central and South America;; satellite earth stations - NA
Country code / area code +1-340
Television
Television broadcast stations: about a dozen television broadcast stations including 1 public TV station; multi-channel cable and satellite TV services are available (2009)
Televisions: 68,000 (1997)
Internet
The U.S. Virgin Islands' country code top-level domain is .vi.
Internet hosts: 8,933 (2010)
Internet users: 30,000 (2008)
Locally owned and operated Internet Service Provider: SM@RTNET www.smartnet.vi Providing Internet service via fixed wireless and Fiber Optics.