Antigua and Barbuda’s connectivity is anchored by multiple submarine cable links and a maturing local interconnection layer. International bandwidth lands at St John’s via the Eastern Caribbean Fiber System (ECFS), with additional regional capacity from Digicel’s Deep Blue One/Southern Caribbean Fiber—together giving diverse north–south routes across the Lesser Antilles. A new CELIA system has been announced, with Antigua participating and target service by 2027, which would further strengthen resilience and price diversity.
Domestically, Antigua and Barbuda is moving traffic closer to home: an Antigua and Barbuda Internet Exchange (ABIX) was registered as AS401034 in April 2024, indicating a local peering fabric designed to keep on-island traffic local and reduce latency. On the services side, the country shares in a regional milestone, the ECCB’s DCash retail CBDC pilot (March 2021–12 January 2024), which, although concluded, marked a notable first for a currency union and informs ongoing ‘DCash 2.0’ work.
The legal framework for online activity is comparatively comprehensive for a small market: the Electronic Transactions Act (2013, amended 2016) gives legal effect to e-signatures and e-records, while the Data Protection Act (2013) establishes privacy principles and oversight; telecoms policy is framed by the Cap. 423 and its 2018 amendment (e.g. groundwork for number portability). Combined with subsea diversity and the emerging IXP, these instruments place Antigua and Barbuda near the regional frontier on a few practical enablers: redundant international paths, local peering in progress, and a functioning e-transactions/privacy rulebook suited to expanding digital services.
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Follow Antigua and Barbuda’s digital submarine cables
Bahrain’s digital profile is built on very strong connectivity. The national portal notes that Bahrain achieved nationwide 5G services as one of the first countries in the world, with 5G download speeds above 2 Gbps and more than 95% fibre rollout across the Kingdom by 2023. The telecom regulator describes Bahrain as “one of the most advanced communications markets globally,” with nationwide 5G and widespread fibre broadband, and has recently approved wholesale changes that allow fibre speeds to more than double at no extra retail cost.
Cloud adoption is another area where Bahrain stands out. In 2019 AWS opened its first Middle East Region in Bahrain, putting the country in a strong position to capitalise on cloud computing. Government sources report that around 85% of government data has been migrated to AWS, a level of public-sector cloud usage that is unusually high by global standards and credited with improving resilience and efficiency. These moves are anchored in a Cloud First policy and a comprehensive National Digital Economy Strategy that positions Bahrain as a connected, innovation-driven digital hub.
On the innovation side, Bahrain’s startup ecosystem punches above its weight in the region. Startup Genome and local ecosystem reports estimate around USD 1.2 billion in ecosystem value (2021–2023) and ~40% annual growth, with Bahrain ranked among the top 10 MENA ecosystems on several performance and cost-effectiveness metrics. These analyses highlight fintech, cybersecurity and AI/big data as key strengths, underpinned by strong connectivity, cloud infrastructure and supportive regulation, positioning Bahrain as a competitive regional hub for digital entrepreneurship.
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Vanuatu has made notable progress in digital access: by early 2025, internet penetration reached approximately 45.7 %, with around 151,000 users, while social media usage stood at 39.3 % of the population—among the higher rates in the least developed Pacific nations. Mobile connectivity is particularly strong, with 315,000 mobile connections, amounting to 95 % of the population; remarkably, nearly 96.4 % of these connections support broadband (3G/4G) services—placing Vanuatu among the top regional performers in mobile‐broadband diffusion.
From an infrastructure standpoint, Vanuatu benefits from relatively high mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (66.5) and a high active SIM penetration (82.5 %)—well above regional averages and indicating strong mobile access and digital inclusion potential across urban and provincial areas. While fixed‑broadband remains modest, the widespread mobile broadband adoption positions Vanuatu ahead of many Pacific peers in connectivity resilience and access scalability.
Despite its small scale, Vanuatu’s digital ecosystem is strategically positioned—supported by infrastructure like the ICN1 submarine cable, local digital platforms, and inclusive awareness initiatives. These factors combine to deliver some of the highest mobile‑broadband coverage and active SIM penetration rates in the Pacific.
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Uruguay has one of the highest internet penetration rates in Latin America, with over 90% of households connected to the internet. This widespread connectivity results from initiatives like Plan Ceibal, which provided laptops and internet access to students nationwide, helping bridge the digital divide. Uruguay’s government has implemented comprehensive e-government platforms that allow citizens to access a wide range of public services online. The Agencia de Gobierno Electrónico y Sociedad de la Información y del Conocimiento (AGESIC) oversees these efforts, ensuring that digital services are user-friendly and secure.
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The digital economy in the US accounted for approximately $2.41 trillion in current-dollar value added in 2021. This figure highlights the substantial contribution of digital activities to the nation’s GDP, demonstrating the sector’s robust growth even during challenging economic periods. The digital economy’s growth rate significantly outpaced the overall U.S. economy, with real value added growing by 9.8 percent from 2020 to 2021, compared to the overall GDP growth of 5.7 percent in the same period.
The United States is a global leader in the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI). The 2024 Government AI Readiness Index, produced by Oxford Insights, ranks the United States as the top country in terms of AI readiness. The AI landscape in the US is characterized by a robust ecosystem that includes pioneering research institutions, leading technology companies, significant government initiatives, and a strong regulatory framework. This ecosystem fosters innovation and positions the US at the forefront of AI advancements.
Key components of the AI landscape
Research and development
Academic institutions: Renowned universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon are at the cutting edge of AI research, contributing to breakthroughs in machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and robotics.
Big Tech leaders: Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and Facebook are leading the development of AI technologies. They invest heavily in AI research and development, producing cutting-edge innovations and deploying AI in various products and services.
Startups and innovation: The US is home to a vibrant startup ecosystem, with numerous AI-focused startups driving innovation in areas such as healthcare, finance, autonomous vehicles, and cybersecurity.
Government initiatives and policies
The National AI Initiative Act of 2020: This act established a coordinated federal program to accelerate AI research, development, and deployment across the U.S. government.
AI research institutes: The establishment of AI research institutes by NSF focuses on multidisciplinary research to address societal challenges and advance AI technologies.
The American AI Initiative: Launched in 2019, this initiative aims to ensure American leadership in AI by promoting investment in AI research, unleashing AI resources, removing barriers to AI innovation, and preparing the workforce for the AI era.
US President’s Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (2020): This executive order emphasizes the importance of developing AI that is safe, secure, and trustworthy. It mandates federal agencies to prioritize AI research and development that aligns with these principles and to ensure that AI systems are designed and deployed in ways that are ethical and protective of civil liberties and privacy.
Public-private partnerships
Collaborations between government agencies, academia, and industry are crucial for advancing AI. Initiatives such as the Partnership on AI bring together stakeholders to address AI’s ethical, social, and economic impacts.
Ethics and regulation
Ethical frameworks: Organizations like the IEEE and the Partnership on AI develop ethical guidelines to ensure responsible AI development and deployment.
Regulatory approaches: The US government is working on developing regulations that balance innovation with the protection of privacy, security, and civil liberties. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other regulatory bodies are involved in crafting policies for AI governance.
Timor-Leste’s strongest digital asset is its demographic profile and mobile reach. Over 70% of the population is under 35, one of the highest youth shares in the world, with a median age of approximately 20, providing the country with a significant ‘digital native’ base for future adoption. Mobile penetration is high for a low-income, small state: there were around 1.67–1.75 million mobile connections in 2024–2025, equivalent to roughly 120–124% of the population, and Timor-Leste is among the Southeast Asian markets where more than a quarter of smartphone users are mobile-only, rarely using Wi-Fi.
In terms of the online information environment, Timor-Leste is a regional outlier in a positive sense. On RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, it ranked 20th of 180 countries in 2024, still classed as ‘relatively free’ and explicitly described as one of Asia’s leading countries for press freedom. A 2025 legal analysis notes that Timor-Leste now has the best press-freedom score in ASEAN, making it the bloc’s top performer on this media and online-expression indicator as it moves toward full membership.
Timor-Leste also exhibits notable strengths in youth digital engagement and emerging digital finance, compared to many countries at a similar income level. Studies highlight that young people are active on social media and increasingly visible as digital rights advocates, while initiatives like the UNDP’s Youth Accelerator Lab utilise online tools and even AI-supported polling to incorporate youth perspectives into national policymaking. In the financial services sector, despite low overall literacy, approximately a quarter of adults already use digital or mobile wallets, and these services now reach the majority of villages, positioning Timor-Leste among the more dynamic digital payment environments in the Pacific’s least-developed economies.
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Zambia’s digital profile is shaped by fast-growing networks, early next-gen rollouts, and strong payment rails for a landlocked economy. On connectivity, the country was an early Sub-Saharan adopter of 5G (MTN launched commercially in Nov 2022; Airtel followed in Jul 2023), while overall subscriptions kept climbing in 2024 (23.2 m mobile lines; 13.5 m internet subscriptions, both up year-on-year). Zambia augments east-coast subsea capacity (via SEACOM/EASSy) with west/south corridors (WACS/Equiano) carried over cross-border fibre, diversification that’s been expanding through new routes such as the SADC Highway link toward Livingstone. It also moved early among regional peers to license Starlink (service live since Oct 2023), improving reach for remote sites and back-up links.
In digital finance, Zambia is one of the region’s stronger examples of interoperable instant payments: the National Financial Switch (ZECHL) connects banks, mobile-money providers and other PSPs so users can move funds wallet to wallet and wallet to bank across providers, an architecture highlighted in AfricanNenda’s case study and in recent national announcements.On the cloud side, government-backed INFRATEL operates Tier III (Design)-certified data-centre capacity in Lusaka (with additional sites in Lusaka and Kitwe), giving the public sector and local businesses in-country hosting options uncommon among lower-middle-income peers. Together with steady subscription growth and maturing infrastructure diversity, these features place Zambia near the regional frontier on a few practical indicators, interoperable payments, early 5G readiness, LEO satellite licensing, and government-grade local hosting, without yet matching the continent’s top performers on overall usage levels or speeds.
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