A female student of Lead Institute, Leah Melinard, has lamented the lack of Internet access for education and recreation purposes in the Kalinago Territory. The young lady pointed out that Atkinson community and the Kalinago Territory among other communities in the east coast lack internet connectivity even though surrounding areas such as Castle Bruce, La Plaine, and Marigot among others enjoy unhindered Wi-Fi connection.
Melinard said this is more worrisome given that the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated online learning for students who are forced to study from home. She noted that with the availability of free Wi-Fi in other areas, people in the Kalinago and parts of the east coast are forced to pay costly charges for portable routers and limited data packages before they can access the internet for study purposes.
“This is costly to our families who are already facing economic challenges,” she stressed. “This, to me, is extremely unfair; while other students in Dominica have unlimited access to the internet, my friends and family are at a disadvantage yet again, through no fault of theirs.”
The young student who stated that she doesn’t want to believe that what is happening is a case of “implicit systematic racism” blamed service providers for simply refusing to invest in digital infrastructure in the Kalinago Territory.
“It seems these service providers have simply refused to invest in infrastructure in the Kalinago Territory, but willingly bleed out the last dollar from the beings of the most vulnerable,” she lamented. “The more I look at this case, the more infuriating it becomes.”
Executive Director of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC), Craig Nesty, agreed that Melinard is fair in her assessment, adding that lack of internet access puts a community at an economic and educational disadvantage – especially at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has forced people to stay at home.
Nesty pointed out that his commission had sent out tenders via the Universal Service Fund to enable service providers to provide cheap internet access to affected areas without much success. He said the proposal to have fixed internet connectivity at a flat rate for mobile data has not really gone well, and that “We even proposed that we will meet the cost of all the mobile modems, LTE modems and we will also subsidize some of the costs for subscribers in those areas…”
Assistant Chief Education Officer, Jeffrey Blaize, said Digicel and Flow have provided internet connectivity to primary schools via Wi-Fi services and that Chrome book devices were also dispatched to schools for internet use. He advised students in groups of 10 to visit primary schools with their teachers where they can use Wi-Fi for internet access through their Chrome books while ensuring to observe social distancing and proper hygiene because of COVID-19 infection.
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