Jamaican Government is Pro Net Neutrality. Period.

Jamaica’s Technology Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley is unapologetically standing firm on his Government’s stance to support for net neutrality, which is the principle of equal access to Internet content and applications.

This comes in wake of increased complaints over the past two years, especially on social media, by mobile phones users who were blocked from WhatsApp calls and before that the Viber App by both Telecom Providers – Digicel and Lime.

Dr Wheatley has repeatedly said that phone providers should reassess their business models and become more innovative in this fast changing global technology space. He has also said  that, for Caribbean countries to become greater producers of technology, there must be an open environment for innovation, creativity and freedom of expression.

Now while nations around the world, have taken different positions on the matter of net neutrality, Dr Wheatley added that each Caribbean country must determine how best these rules work for their economic goals.

A deeper definition of Net neutrality

Net neutrality (also network neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net equality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet the same, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. The term was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003, as an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier.^[1][2][3][4]