Telecommunications in the Bahamas is accomplished through the transmission of information by various types of technologies within The Bahamas, mainly telephones, radio, television, and the Internet.
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| Telecommunications in the Bahamas | ||
| Telephones: | 137,000 fixed lines, 141st in the world (2012).[1] 254,000 mobile cellular lines, 176th in the world (2012).
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| Calling code | +1 242 | |
| Radio | about 15 radio stations operating with BCB operating a multi-channel radio broadcasting network alongside privately owned radio stations (2007). | |
| Television | 2 stations (one in Nassau and one in Freeport, a rebroadcast transmitter, commercially run Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas (BCB); multi-channel cable TV subscription service is available (2007). | |
| Internet | 226,855 users, 152nd in the world (2012).[2] 71.7% of the population, 47th in the world (2012). | |
| 8,730 fixed broadband subscriptions, 52nd in the world (2012).[3] 2.8% of the population, 120th in the world (2012). | ||
| 20,661 hosts, 117th in the world (2012).[4] 121,856 IPv4 addresses allocated, 385 for every 1,000 people (2012).[5] | ||
| Top level domain | .bs | |
| Internet Service Providers (ISPs): |
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Access to the Internet is unrestricted.[6] There were no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without judicial oversight.[7]
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. An independent press combined with a relatively effective—albeit extremely backlogged—judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system ensures freedom of speech and press. The constitution prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice.[7] Strict and antiquated libel laws dating to British legal codes are seldom invoked.[6]
In April 2013, the Bahamas Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade warned that the police would press charges against people who post “lewd” or “obscene” pictures on social media websites and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson announced that the government was working on legislation that will police information posted on the Internet. "We have to balance freedom of the press with protecting the public,” she added.[8] Also in April Rodney Moncur was charged with "committing a grossly indecent act" by posting autopsy photographs of a man who died in police custody on his Facebook page.[9]
Phone calls to the Bahamas are monitored by the U.S. National Security Agency's MYSTIC program.