PRESS RELEASE - Mandela Park is now officially the second public Wi-Fi facility, in Jamaica, following yesterday’s (Thursday, January 12) launch staged by the Universal Service Fund in conjunction with the Ministry of Science Energy and Technology the Fund’s USF ConnectJA project. Making the point that “2017 will be bigger and better when it comes to technological development,” Dr. the...

Paul Jackson is the winner of the ‘Environmental Sustainability Award’, at the recently held National Innovations Awards at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, in New Kingston. He received the award for his invention ‘Environment Focused Recycling Machine’. The inventor said that he has had this idea for approximately two years, and started working on it in 2014. With a degree in...

In a drive to facilitate greater Internet access to Jamaicans, the Government will continue to roll out free secured Wi-Fi hotspots in popular public places across the island. The initiative is being made possible through the Universal Service Fund (USF), an agency of the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology, which will carry out the installation in the select locations....

The Government will be making changes to critical pieces of legislation that will enable a more robust framework in protecting personal information in cyberspace. These include the Data Protection Act, which is slated to be tabled in Parliament next year, and the establishment of a single Regulator for information and communications technology (ICT). This was disclosed by Minister of Science,...

Persons utilising their cell phones to conduct money transactions, including banking, paying bills and purchasing goods and services, are being urged to take greater precautions. Director of the Mona Information and Communication Technology Policy Centre, at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Hopeton Dunn, said persons using the mobile Internet are less inclined to...

The Government is moving ahead with plans to establish a single regulator for the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. Science, Energy and Technology Minister, Dr. the Hon. Andrew Wheatley, said the legislative and regulatory changes necessary to facilitate the move are expected to be brought to Parliament in 2017. He noted that the objective is to ensure cohesion across...

Science, Energy and Technology Minister, Dr. the Hon. Andrew Wheatley, has lauded the role of the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA) in advancing Jamaica’s telecommunications and broadband landscape over the past 15 years. He said the SMA, which is the national regulator for the radio frequency spectrum, has facilitated expansion in a number of entities. These, the Minister outlined, includes more...

The Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology, through its Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT), will be training 80 Government information and communications technology (ICT) experts over the next two days. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and the Ministry, the training workshop is aimed at enhancing the education of these ICT professionals in basic cyber standards that should be...

As the country approaches the busiest shopping season of the year, the Government is urging Jamaicans to exercise the greatest level of caution when conducting online transactions. This is in light of a malicious email message that is currently circulating the Internet and which has impacted several Jamaicans so far. In an interview with JIS News, Head of the Cyber...