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“Education in the XXI Century is Not Possible without Technology”
Santo Domingo, March 5, 2009
 José Rafael Vargas, President of the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL), spoke on Thursday at Virtual Educa Caribe’s Latin American Forum on New Technology. His topic was “From the Digital Gap to Opportunity in the Dominican Republic.” The 2009 conference is supported by FUNGLODE and GFDD.
Mr. Vargas began by highlighting the growth of the telecommunications sector in the period between 2004 and 2008 which helped push the GDP up by 15%.
This increase was produced by foreign investment, more than one billion dollars during these years, and an increase in competition in the sector. “Before there was only CODETEL and TRICOM but today there is DG TEC, ONEMAX, ORANGE, WIND TELECOM and BECTEL”.
Vargas presented statistical data on the Dominican population’s use of telecommunication technologies. “There is an 80% density of telecommunication use in the country. Of this, 70% represents cell phones and 10% home phones. They are all digital,” he pointed out.
He indicated that 28% of the population, more than 2 million users, is connected to the Internet.
Telecommunications being the most dynamic sector of the national economy, INDOTEL makes an effort to assure the existence of converging services of Voice, Internet and Cable (offered today as Triple Play) and charging one bill for all of them.
In terms of television, he said that there are 44 TV channels in VHF and UHF and 98 cable service concessionary companies operating in the DR.
“The Dominican Republic is the country with the most radio stations in the world in terms of its size and population. [We have] 126 AM radio stations, 247 FM stations and 20 short wave radios,” said Vargas.
INDOTEL operates an interactive service with various communities through the public access centers it has installed. The digital centers have been established in different provinces and are maintained by community leaders without government support.
The idea of these centers is to give citizens easy access to new technology to promote education.
Digital centers are also available for people with specific needs such as: doctors, police, blind people, prisoners, people with Down Syndrome and other motor disabilities.
These initiatives and the feedback received from the various regions which benefit from them, gave rise to the Rural Broadband Connectivity Project idea which consists of running domestic Internet and telephone lines to 508 communities around the country. “Although every house in every town will not be able to receive telephone or Internet service, they will create centers which will provide access to these technologies.”
Vargas ended his speech by explaining that INDOTEL’s education mission is to continue to develop through the Academic Excellence Fund, developed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (SEESC&T) and the Technology Institute of the Americas (ITLA).
This project’s goal is to prepare “1,267 brains” to work in the country’s telecommunications sector.
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