Telecommunication in Jamaica

Compared to the European Union, Jamaica is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +1876, there were a total of 3.31 m connections in 2020. Among them were 2.87 m million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.97 per person. In the EU, this figure is 1.2 mobile phones per person.

In the expansion of broadband Internet connections, Jamaica is back. Around 55% of all residents have access to the Internet. Approximately 13% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the previous ISDN (more than 2048 kbit/s).

With about 3,906 webhosts, Jamaica is below the world's average by population.

Back to overview: Jamaica

Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 37.84 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Jamaica ranked 102nd in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 22.73 Mbit/second (90th place). The quality of the Internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and latency, is very far ahead at 25th place.
In mobile internet, i.e. on tablets and smartphones, Jamaica comes 58th with a download speed of 44.23 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 12 Mbit was enough for 95th place.

The "Speedtest Global Index" published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in September 2021 from 181 countries.

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and Internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100% mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.

Access to the Internet in Jamaica from 1990 - 2019

Broadband internet in Jamaica 2001 - 2020

Landlines 1990 - 2020

Mobile phones 1990 - 2020

Distribution in 2020	Jamaica Total	Jamaica percent	EU Total	EU percent
Broadband users	385,603.00	13.02 %	162.67 m	36.33 %
Landlines	436,249.00	14.73 %	159.99 m	35.73 %
Mobile cellulars	2.87 m	97.03 %	541.96 m	121.03 %