Chief Secretary Farley Augustine says the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is working to close the digital gap by bringing free WiFi connectivity to all public spaces.
Augustine made the statement while addressing 200 students on Monday at the launch of the Digicel Foundation’s Caribbean Code+ programme at the Tobago Information Technology Ltd in Signal Hill. The foundation, has partnered with We Code Caribbean to host a coding programme for 24 schools, 11 of which are in Tobago.
Augustine said there is already a policy within the assembly that every government office must have open WiFi access to the public.
That policy, he said, has been around since January/ February this year and “so you should not be at a single public office on the island and not be able to have open WiFi available to you.”
He said people unable to connect while at any government institution should report such.
“Just tag me in a post on Facebook so that I could pull up that division so that they could get that done post-haste.”
Augustine said the world has moved past the stage of paying for WiFi, having found other ways in which money can be earned through open WiFi platforms.
“Whether it is through advertisements, but we understand that there is a great security advantage to having some open access.”
He recalled a time when students would be disciplined for having cellphones and other such devices while in the classroom, and schools treated internet access passwords as confidential.
“Could you imagine to be able to walk in and around Scarborough, and everywhere you turn you have access to some open WiFi facility?
“It means that you can get directions, it means that you can use an app to get a taxi – some ride-share feature, it means that you can WhatsApp call somebody if you’re without funds, it means that if you’re a tourist in the space and your device is not roaming and you cannot afford the roaming price, you can still communicate, and that’s the world that we’re moving towards.”
Augustine said the conversations have started with the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) about having all buses having WiFi access.
“So you should not be in a public transport anywhere and not have access to WiFi capabilities. It means that when you catch the bus from L’Anse Fourmi coming to town, you can potentially be completing your homework on your way to school. You can potentially be completing a task, because time spent in public transportation should be used productively – that’s the goal.”
He said the idea of GPS trackers on the buses as well as electronic tickers at the bus stops are two of the things being looked at, “so that you can predict when the next bus would be arriving.”
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