Technology

Perhaps you've seen them in their striking blue T-shirts, promoting what is fast becoming Haiti's telecommunications rocket into the future. When the Vietnamese Viettel acquired 60% of the former Haitian national telecommunication company TELECO, in April 2010, the focus for many was still on the shattering effects of the earthquake months before. But, as of September 7, 2011, the considerable leaps and bounds to the quality of Haitian technological life, facilitated by NATCOM, have been anywhere but the back of people's minds.

With rigorous promotion of a dynamic product, NATCOM has quickly improved the capacity of the country from 1 to 4 Gbps, bringing the average user from speeds of 2 to 3 Mbps into triple digit speeds. The further launch of their 3G mobile internet service has made reliable access to the internet available to all Haitians, regardless of terrain.

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Perhaps you've seen them in their striking blue T-shirts, promoting what is fast becoming Haiti's telecommunications rocket into the future. When the Vietnamese Viettel acquired 60% of the former Haitian national telecommunication company TELECO, in April 2010, the focus for many was still on the shattering effects of the earthquake months before. But, as of September 7, 2011, the considerable leaps and bounds to the quality of Haitian technological life, facilitated by NATCOM, have been anywhere but the back of people's minds.

With rigorous promotion of a dynamic product, NATCOM has quickly improved the capacity of the country from 1 to 4 Gbps, bringing the average user from speeds of 2 to 3 Mbps into triple digit speeds. The further launch of their 3G mobile internet service has made reliable access to the internet available to all Haitians, regardless of terrain.

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Irishman Denis O'Brien is billionaire entrepreneur who has succeeded in establishing mobile phone company, Digicel, on the island since 2006. His company is Haiti's biggest private investor.

Digicel's share of consumer users in Haiti is 4.8 million, nearly 50% of the island's population. This is a remarkable accomplishment in a country where the government of Haiti (GOH), and local development banks have been lax in courting private investment.

In December 2012, O'Brien held an awards event for small business owners, "Entrepreneur of the Year". President Martelly acknowledged O'Brien's enormous contributions.

Digicel generated revenue of around $2.5 billion during the 2011-2012 fiscal year, Haiti's contribution being $439 million. O'Brien sees the potential of small business owners in Haiti, having re-located Digicel's call center from monied Martinique to Haiti.

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Project Cyber Tap Tap has been launched by Martelly, President of Haiti at the National Palace. Many of the youngsters from the disadvantaged areas in Haiti can benefit from this newly designed project. Awareness of ICT or Information Technology and Communication is expected to increase.

Free Access to the Internet

All credit goes to Cyber Tap Tap. Educational games on websites on the internet can be accessed free of charge by high school students. Adequate training will be imparted to instructors, guarantees the Head of State.

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The internet industry in Haiti has yet to boom as many people are still unable to afford such services. Though the market has shown a lot of potential and advantages, Internet service providers must exert more efforts and initiatives to provide Internet connection at a more affordable price.

Most antennas that transmit signal for Internet connection in Haiti are located on a hill above Port-au-Prince. These antennas and transmitter cram the area, as Internet companies are forced to build their own towers. Unlike in other countries such as the United States, Haiti could still not allow tower-sharing, wherein multiple companies share a single internet infrastructure. The said infrastructure is operated by a third-party company. This makes it easier, cheaper and more efficient for service providers to operate their business. However, Haiti's telecommunication law, which has not been updated for 35 years, makes it impossible for companies to do the same in the country.

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Jean Rene Duperval a former Haitian telecom director was recently sentenced to a 9 year jail term for bribery charges. Duperval was the director of international relations for Haiti Telecom, the sole provider of land line telephone service in Haiti a company which was allowed to transact with foreign telephone companies to provide various telephone services across the countries. He was arrested with charges of having engaged in various questionable activities between the years 2003 and 2006 where evidence shows that he was actually engaging in money laundering schemes and hiding the fact with various ways developed to evade the long arm of law.

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Jean Rene Duperval, a senior telecommunications official in Haiti whom everyone highly thought of was found guilty on corruption charges of having received a bribe from two Miami based companies by the names Cinergy and Terra, in order to give them a lucrative long-distance phone contracts in the Caribbean nation. Evidence at his trial in March showed he took almost $500,000 in bribes. He was hired as Haiti Teleco's director of international relations by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2003, is the first Haitian government official to be convicted at trial by the Justice Department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law prohibits American businesses from paying bribes to foreign businesses and government officials.

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Attorneys representing a Haiti high-level official, Rene Duperval, convicted of money laundering in a kick-back scheme between Haiti Telco and two U.S. telecom companies, filed a motion Friday afternoon to appeal his sentence. The past Director of International Relations at Haiti received a nine-year prison sentence for charges related to money laundering (19 counts) and money laundering conspiracy (2 counts). Besides the convictions, the defendant was forced to deposit close to $500,000 in bribery money that he allegedly received from Terra and Cinergy in 2003 and 2006, into a court escrow account.

Rene Duperval's attorney, John E. Bergendahl, filed the motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, announcing his intention to appeal Duperval's prison term. When contacted by the news media, Bergendahl declined to comment.

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Haiti Telecommunication International (Haitel) is now in receivership as a result of its tax problems with the government. General Tax Directorate (DGI) director general Jean Baptiste Clark Neptune announced that the request for Haitel's receivership was approved in order to continue the company's operations and protect its employees and shareholders. Neptune clarified that the measure was taken not to close the telecommunication company but to help it resume its operations.

It can be recalled that Haitel has been buried in debt. Since 2005, it has accumulated a debt of more than $80 million in government taxes from several institutions such as DGI, National Council of Telecommunications (CONATEL), BRH and BNC, among others. The total debt accounts for 40% of government taxes.
CONATEL director Jean Marie Guillaume, who held a meeting with the DGI director, said that Haitel could no longer keep up its operation. It does not have money to pay its employees and purchase fuel for its generations anymore. As a matter of fact, the director added, Haitel's employees have not received their salary for over five months.

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Online casinos have been a growing trend as more and more individuals rely on the Internet for entertainment and leisure. These are very convenient and practical for many as they save on transportation expenses and casino passes. Now people won't have to travel all the way to Las Vegas just to have the ultimate gambling experience!

There are three types of online casinos: the web-based online casino, the download-based casino, and the most recent live casino.
The first one, the web-based casino, involves websites where online users could be able to play different types of casino games without having to download anything. To ensure a smooth casino experience, users should be able to have browser plug-ins such as Java or Macromedia, as well as a bandwidth.

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