Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 06, 2014 (SKNIS): The state of the telecommunications sector in St. Kitts and Nevis will be assessed in the coming months by officials from the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) in collaboration with the Department of Statistics.
NTRC Director Ervin Williams told SKNIS that he and two other persons recently participated in a regional Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Data Indicators Workshop in St. Lucia, where they learnt tools to gather and analyze the information from the assessment.
“We looked at two particular steps. One of the steps is done in collaboration with the Statistics Department [where] we do what we call house to house surveys,” he stated. “We’ll design questionnaires, go house to house and ask questions. That will give us an immediate idea as to what is happening on the ground.”
“The other information particulars we looked at was the one where the NTRC under [its] powers, can request from the telecommunication providers particular information, what we call administrative data, that will give us a snapshot as well as to what is happening with consumers in the telecommunications market.”
Sonia Hamilton, the Universal Service Fund Administrator at the NTRC and Delvin Harris at the Department of Statistics, attended the February 24 to 27 workshop organized by the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Mr. Williams described the workshop as “timely” noting that it served as an eye opener on conducting the assessment efficiently and how the information collected can benefit the Federation.
“This goes all the way to the ITU [which] analyzes the data and does a world ranking,” the NTRC Director revealed. “… when investors are looking to come into markets they look at the readiness and the soundness of your telecoms infrastructure and one of the things they refer to is the statistics department for the ITU and this gives them an immediate reflection of what [a] country’s position is so we want to provide that data, as proper as we can, and send it off to the ITU.”
A meeting of local stakeholders including the participants that attended the workshop and representatives from the Department of Information Technology will be convened to plan the way forward.
*************************
DISCLAIMER
This article was posted in its entirety as received by SKNVibes.com. This media house does not correct any spelling or grammatical error within press releases and commentaries. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of SKNVibes.com, its sponsors or advertisers
