KINGSTON, Jamaica — All major townships across Jamaica have been outfitted with public Wi-Fi through the Universal Service Fund (USF) Connect-Jamaica Public Wi-Fi Programme.

The latest to receive public Wi-Fi hotspots in the 2024/2025 financial year were Half-Way Tree and Papine – University Square both in St Andrew; Mandeville, Manchester; Waterfront, Kingston; and Cross Roads, St Andrew.

Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, Daryl Vaz, made the disclosure during his recent contribution to the 2025/26 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

“These activities are complemented by the Community Wi- Fi Programme, which since its launch in 2020, has seen 315 community Wi- Fi hotspots valued at $1.2 billion being successfully installed across the 63 constituencies serving 235,000 active users across the island, and the numbers continue to grow,” said Vaz.

He noted that the fifth community Wi-Fi hotspot was installed in each of the 63 constituencies in the 2024/2025 financial year.

“This means that citizens across the length and breadth of Jamaica are not too far away from publicly-provided Wi-Fi. This means that the digital divide is closing, slowly but surely. We are not stopping there, as we continue to allocate $1 billion each year to invest in the Government’s National Broadband Infrastructure (NBI),” the minister said.

Meanwhile, the USF continued its investment in the Technology Advancement Programme.

This investment, worth $210 million, was executed in collaboration with the Amber Group and HEART/NSTA Trust and saw Cohort III (2023/24) of that programme graduating 236 unattached youth between the ages of 18 and 35, with information and communications technology (ICT) skills.

Vaz also informed that the USF worked with educational institutions to establish 30 ICT clubs in schools and hosted its second ICT Club Conference. USF also hosted a four-week Crack the Code coding competition during Youth and Technology Month, for youth aged 12 to 21, focusing on HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and Visual Studio Code, the aim being to encourage digital skill development.

USF awarded 12 full scholarships valued at $13 million to support high-achieving students pursuing ICT undergraduate degrees at the University of the West Indies, University of Technology Jamaica, and the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean, for the 2024/2025 academic year.

“Through these strategic initiatives, the Government, through the USF, continues to drive digital inclusion, ensuring accessible, sustainable, and transformative ICT solutions for all Jamaicans as we strive to achieve a better Jamaica,” Vaz said.