(Barbados Nation) While free WI-FI across the island has been a boon for Barbadians and tourists seeking a wireless Internet connection, it has a serious side-effect: more laptop computers are being stolen.
According to Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin, making Internet access more widely available in Barbados was to be commended as that aided in bridging the digital divide between people who were able to pay to have Internet access and those who could not.
However, he noted there was a backlash.
“We predicted at the outset that there [was] likely to be negative fallout from this very useful initiative and there has been,” he said.
The commissioner also indicated that the force was still battling the serious problem of cellular phone theft which was “reaching very worrying or almost epidemic proportions”.