Overview

The list above shows the IT strengths and IT weakness that Jamaica is facing in their nation at this very moment.  Jamaica is working hard at making a strong commitment to implementing IT at its fullest capacity on their island but many barriers are still stopping this progress.  Jamaica will need an aggressive commitment in order to adhere to the guidelines that they put together under their strategy for implementation of IT in their country.

One of the strengths that was pointed out is that Jamaica has broken up the monopoly that Cable & Wireless has on the country.  By doing so Jamaica has been able to incorporate competition between various telecommunication firms thereby helping keep costs down for their citizens.  Jamaica has also gotten foreign investors to invest heavily into their IT strategy.  I believe this is a strength as well as a weakness.  By getting foreign investors to invest heavily they will be giving up the direction or the agenda at which they proposed when they decide to develop their IT structure.  As we all know he who has the money calls the shots.  So the investors may have a different agenda in which direction they want the IT structure to follow.

All thought Jamaica has a so called 100% digital telecommunication infrastructure , people in rural areas don't have phones, or have been on a waiting list for phones for weeks, months, and years.  People in cities have the luxury of taking advantage of the network but people in rural areas are suffering.  If one thing that we have learned throughout history and everyday life some people are not work well, when it comes to change.  So with Jamaica implementing a IT strategy in everyday life they are going to have a lot of negativity when it comes to citizens changing how they do things in their everyday life thanks to IT.

Jamaica does not have any cybercities or IT clusters on their island.  They have what are called freezones where they house companies that do what’s’ called Nearshore outsourcing.  The IT business are so spread out on the island.  The main places where IT is being utilized are Montego Bay which is on one side of the island.  The other area is Kingston which is on the opposite side of the island.  The free zones are seven to nine hours away from each other.  In the parishes of Portmore, the government is building a Informatics park, which should help the IT market but only time will tell.