British Virgin Islands Communications - 2024

Telephones - fixed lines

total subscriptions: 22,571 (2021 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 22 (2021 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total subscriptions: 35,000 (2021 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 110 (2021 est.)

Telecommunication systems

general assessment: the telecom sector has seen a decline in subscriber numbers (particularly for prepaid mobile services the mainstay of short term visitors) and revenue; fixed and mobile broadband services are two areas that have benefited from the crisis as employees and students have resorted to working from home; one major casualty may be the region’s second largest telco operator, Digicel; the company filed for bankruptcy in the US in April 2020; it continues to operate in all of its Caribbean markets as it seeks to refinance billions of dollars of debt; the other major telco, regional incumbent Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), is experiencing similar drops in subscriber numbers and revenue; CWC is expanding and enhancing its fixed and mobile networks in many of the countries it serves around the Caribbean, despite many locations being small islands with very small populations; one area of the telecom market that is not prepared for growth is 5G mobile; governments, regulators, and even the mobile network operators have shown that they have not been investing in 5G opportunities at the present time; network expansion and enhancements remain concentrated around improving LTE coverage. (2021)

domestic: fixed-line connections exceed 22 per 100 persons and mobile cellular subscribership is roughly 110 per 100 persons (2021)

international: country code - 1-284; landing points for PCCS, ECFS, CBUS, Deep Blue Cable, East-West, PAN-AM, Americas-1, Southern Caribbean Fiber, Columbus- IIb, St Thomas - St Croix System, Taino-Carib, and Americas I- North via submarine cable to Caribbean, Central and South America, and US (2019)

Broadcast media

1 private TV station; multi-channel TV is available from cable and satellite subscription services; about a half-dozen private radio stations

Internet country code

.vg

Internet users

total: 24,087 (2021 est.)

percent of population: 77.7% (2021 est.)

Broadband - fixed subscriptions

total: 6,738 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 22 (2020 est.)