Paradise Found, Signal Lost: a Patchwork of 5G Network Oases and Deserts

The deployment of 5G networks in the Caribbean remains limited and fragmented, concentrated in the region’s more economically developed islands and territories. Currently, 5G mobile services are commercially available in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Bermuda (included in the Caribbean for the purposes of this analysis), Aruba, the Cayman Islands, and parts of the Dominican Republic. In the French Antilles, initial 5G deployments are now live in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Saint-Barthélemy. Other nations are in various stages of spectrum allocation and trials, signaling a gradual, if uneven, trend toward broader 5G availability.

Key Takeaways:

• A Multi-Tiered Landscape: 5G deployment in the Caribbean is fragmented, potentially contributing toward a digital divide between a handful of economically advanced, tourism-dependent, or geopolitically connected islands and the rest of the region.
• ROI Over Ubiquity: Unlike national-scale rollouts in Puerto Rico and countries outside of the region, the rest of Caribbean 5G is driven by targeted return on investment. High per-capita income, competitive pressure, and dense tourist zones are the key predictors of deployment, not universal service goals.
• The Performance Paradox: Early 5G performance metrics reveal a recurring theme: newly launched, empty networks deliver exceptional speeds (some over 400 Mbps median download speeds), while more mature markets trade some of that raw speed for much higher and more consistent network availability for users.

Caribbean 5G Patterns of Progress

Across the Caribbean, the pace and strategy for 5G deployments vary dramatically. With the possible exception of Puerto Rico, the primary driver for deployment is not universal service but a clear path to return on investment. This has created a multi-tiered landscape defined by economic strength, strategic priorities, and regulatory readiness.

• High GDP. Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico
• High Income. Bermuda, Cayman Islands
• Uncle Sam. Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands
• The French Connection. Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin, (Saint-Barthélemy shows signs of 5G testing, as does French Guyana which is not included in the Caribbean)
• Outlier. Aruba
• Planners. The Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Jamaica

A key competitive dynamic fueling 5G deployment is when incumbents Digicel and Flow are forced to respond to a new competitor, as seen in Bermuda and the Caymans. This is also evident in markets not dominated by this duopoly, such as Aruba, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the French Antilles. Meanwhile, many of the remaining Caribbean countries continue to prioritize their existing 4G LTE networks, where opportunities to expand coverage and improve capacity are more immediate.

Network Availability

(Please note, these charts are interactive. Hover the cursor over a line or bar to feature the subject. Deselect items from the legend to see the remaining subjects in detail.)

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands lead in 5G Availability for the first half of 2025 – 73.8% and 63.6% respectively – comparing favorably to the U.S. at 63.7%. They have benefited significantly from being part of T-Mobile U.S.’s aggressive 5G expansion and from AT&T’s 5G buildout before its operations were sold to Liberty Latin America in late 2020.

Bermuda (31.2%) and the Cayman Islands (6.2%) are well-suited for 5G. Their high residential incomes and demanding business sectors create strong demand for high-performance connectivity, which attracted a competitive third player in Paradise Mobile to accelerate 5G deployments.

Aruba (20.2%) exemplifies a tourism-first strategy, catering to high-spending international visitors who expect superior mobile service. Its small, flat terrain and concentrated infrastructure along the southern and western coasts lower the costs of 5G deployment. The rollout is also distinguished by being led by SETAR, the privatized national telecom owned by the Aruban government.

The Dominican Republic (8.5%) represents a large-scale Caribbean economy, similar to Puerto Rico, making an attractive business case for 5G capital expenditure. Rollouts have logically started in dense urban centers and key tourist corridors where population and economic activity justify the investment.

In the French Antilles, new commercial 5G services launched in early 2025 across Saint Martin (3.0%), Martinique (1.3%), and Guadeloupe (0.3%). These markets benefit from the technical expertise of French telecom subsidiaries like Orange Caraïbe and SFR Caraïbe. In Saint Martin, local operator Dauphin Telecom also launched 5G, contributing to its early Availability edge over the other two islands. Digicel, in partnership with Free (Iliad Group), also has a presence but has not yet launched 5G.

Two Perspectives on 5G Availability

By examining network technology availability from the perspective of all devices, we gain insight into the breadth of 5G deployments and the adoption of 5G-capable devices. However, looking from the perspective of only 5G-capable devices tells us how often those users can actually connect to a 5G network. The former is a network-centric view of all devices; the latter is a device-centric view of the 5G network.

As the earliest market to launch 5G, Availability leader Puerto Rico sees its 5G devices connected to a 5G network (Claro, Liberty Mobile, T-Mobile) the vast majority of the time (87.4%)—a figure that surpasses even the mainland United States (74.1%). The U.S. Virgin Islands follow closely in Puerto Rico’s wake with similarly high results.

Despite a relatively early 5G launch, the Dominican Republic lags in adoption, with just 34.7% 5G Availability for 5G devices. Though its economy is similar in scale to Puerto Rico’s, its population is roughly triple while its per-capita income is one-third, appearing to limit the business case for broader 5G deployment and device uptake.

Bermuda shows the biggest percentage point (ppt) difference between these two perspectives (51.0 ppt). This is attributed to a favorable deployment environment (small, flat, wealthy populous) and a competitive three-player 5G market featuring One, Digicel, and the newly-launched Paradise Mobile.

From a small base, Saint Martin shows the biggest percentage increase between the two metrics (687%), ahead of Martinique (397%) and Guadeloupe (458%). Saint Martin’s competitive three-player market, where two of the three operators (Orange and Dauphin) have launched 5G, appears to be a key driver.

5G Network Speeds — Mixed Bag

With one notable exception (the U.S. Virgin Islands), 5G download and upload speeds unsurprisingly surpass those of 4G. We looked at countries based upon the length of time their 5G networks have been operational.

As a group with recently launched 5G networks, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint Martin exhibit high median download and upload speeds. This is expected; their low 5G Availability percentages indicate these networks are carrying very little traffic. With just a few customers on the network, it is essentially a wide-open road.

Taking Aruba and the Cayman Islands as a pair that launched 5G in the same year (2024), Aruba’s higher rate of 5G devices on 5G than the Caymans (59.8% vs 15.6%) suggests more network traffic. This likely explains a slower median download speed for Aruba than the Caymans (144.70 Mbps vs 224.17 Mbps), taking the networks as equivalent on the whole (ie, site density and spectrum aside) in delivering the end-user experience. Conversely, Arubans (and tourists in Aruba) appear to leave the uplink more lightly utilized than Caymanians (and their tourists), leading all Caribbean countries with a median 5G download speed of 52.39 Mbps. 

The Dominican Republic’s lower 5G adoption has a silver lining for those who have upgraded: a relatively unloaded network delivering a fast median download speed of 367.78 Mbps. Compare this to Puerto Rico, the most mature 5G market, which posts a still-respectable 129.23 Mbps under a much heavier load.

Bermuda’s competitive market presents another example where significant 5G device adoption is loading the 5G networks, keeping the median 5G download speed (86.27 Mbps) only modestly above its 4G median (60.55 Mbps).

Finally, the U.S. Virgin Islands stand apart. Despite a similar mobile market structure and 5G maturity to Puerto Rico, its much smaller scale may have limited commensurate capital investment, which would be consistent with performance results. In the USVI, T-Mobile’s competitors deliver faster 4G LTE speeds than T-Mobile’s 5G service.

Where Will 5G Launch Next?

The pattern of existing rollouts provides a model for predicting the next wave of 5G in the Caribbean. The most likely candidates are countries that fit the established “high-income” or “tourism-first” profiles but may currently be stalled by regulatory hurdles.

At the front of the line are The Bahamas (Nassau, in particular) and Barbados. Both boast strong tourism economies and high GDP per capita, and their network operators have declared their infrastructure “5G-ready.” Commercial launches are primarily contingent on final spectrum allocation from government regulators. Smaller, tourism-dense islands like Sint Maarten, which mirror the Aruba model, are also strong contenders pending local regulatory action.

Competitive dynamics will also trigger expansion. In Trinidad and Tobago, a market already served by 5G for fixed wireless, a pivot to mobile 5G is the logical next step, likely to be driven by one operator seeking an edge over its rivals. This dynamic is also pushing expansion across borders, as seen with Bermuda’s Paradise Mobile, which, after launching 5G at home, is already planning entry into the Cayman Islands 5G fray.

For many other Caribbean nations, however, expanding and fortifying existing 4G LTE networks remains a more pressing and pragmatic priority than investing in 5G. The high costs, challenging terrain, and risk from natural disasters present formidable barriers. This reality is creating a widening digital divide between the 5G pioneers and the rest of the region. The evolution of 5G in the Caribbean will continue to be a story of calculated investments, with future progress hinging on regulatory decisions, competitive strategy, and the emergence of new technologies that could lower the cost barrier for smaller markets.

Individual mobile network operator performance in the Caribbean will appear with the Speedtest Connectivity reports in the coming weeks and months (not available for all countries). See also this recent report on Caribbean Broadband Competition Picks Up. To find out more about Speedtest Intelligence^® data and insights, please contact us here.