British Virgin Islands Communications - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Telephones - fixed lines

total subscriptions: 7,000 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 23 (2020 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total subscriptions: 35,163 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 116 (2020 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 23 per 100 persons and mobile cellular subscribership is roughly 116 per 100 persons (2020)

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)

note: the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a significant impact on production and supply chains globally; since 2020, some aspects of the telecom sector have experienced a downturn, particularly in mobile device production; progress toward 5G implementation has resumed, as well as upgrades to infrastructure; consumer spending on telecom services has increased due to the surge in demand for capacity and bandwidth; the crucial nature of telecom services as a tool for work and school from home is still evident, and the spike in this area has seen growth opportunities for development of new tools and increased services

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: 23,585 (2020 est.)

percent of population: 78% (2020 est.)

Broadband - fixed subscriptions

total: 6,738 (2020 est.)

subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 22 (2020 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding British Virgin Islands on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of British Virgin Islands 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about British Virgin Islands 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.