National ICT Strategic Plan x Government of St Kitts and Nevis St Kitts and Nevis enjoys a relatively high teledensity and growth in telephone lines. This stands at 51.76% 1 . x A mobile penetration rate of 70% currently exists. x Internet Accounts are relatively low at 8%, which is probably due to the high cost. x There are currently 21 fibre optic submarine cable systems in the Caribbean. Of these, two land in St Kitts Nevis, the ECFS and GCN cable system. x Cable & Wireless [St. Kitts and Nevis] Ltd. has deployed a double fibre ring around St. Kitts and a fibre link to its international gateway switch. The islands of St. Kitts and Nevis are connected via microwave. The Cable, C&W’s licensed fixed wire competitor, also has deployed a fibre ring plus fibre strands to high-density business sites. The current infrastructure is definitely adequate. But almost without exception business people, public officials, and residential customers alike complain about high prices and network reliability. The lack of choice and high prices of leased circuit capacity are important barriers to investment and development of ICT in St Kitts and Nevis. The main ICT businesses that the Government wishes to attract are information-based industries including data entry, data manipulation, data conversion, information processing, and information management, and these require fairly inexpensive broadband connection in order to flourish. The EU faced with a similar situation in 1992 banded together to apply harmonization measures to conditions for leasing circuit capacity, procedures and conditions of licensing, use of frequencies, etc. This effort by EU members led to a fall in prices that St Kitts and Nevis may similarly achieve through regional cooperation on the matter. Policy and Legal Environment St Kitts and Nevis needs to update laws to accommodate the emergence of online commerce and communications so as to provide the enabling environment. The four main areas that are being urgently addressed are: Electronic Transactions, ICT Crimes, Data Protection, and Intellectual 1 CARANA report (page 19) Ministry of Finance, Sustainable Development, Information and Technology November, 2006 3