Any
community, however remote, which has a Public Secondary or High School will be
provided with facilities for Internet access
Senator
Daryl Vaz, Minister of Information and Technology (April 2011)
Feliz
Sabado!!
Audia’s
sing-song herald of the coming of the blessed Sabbath, her sole excuse for closing up her otherwise
busy Cosmetology shop TJ’s Beauty Salon in Toll Gate, Clarendon.
Hours
later spent at the local Jerk Place together savoring culinary delights
(not allowed on a Sabbath, but who cares!?) after picking her up, with much
cursing. Then later at midnight, with all our sins showered away, she would
call upon the name of Jesus……fall asleep…..then bother me to make her call on
him some more ‘bout 4am.
I love
Sabbath. It’s so exciting! I need to write a book on SDA courtship
rituals…..most fascinating!
Good
news, though rare, usually comes in the same bodacious cleavage pairs in the
Technology world as they did with Audia Grasnton.
Especially in Jamaica!
There is
the apparent inexplicable island-wide decline in the murder rate by 44% in the
First Quarter of 2011 as stated in the article “Murders
drop 44% in First Quarter”, published Friday, April 08, 2011, The Jamaica Observer.
Nice
reading? It gets better!
Ring
tones are now the new usage for Music singles, with Bob Marley getting most of
the love on the Telecom Provider’s Networks heading the cattle drive for
revenue as stated in the article “Digital
Music Sales up - Marley dominates local ring tone charts”, published
Friday, April 08, 2011 by Steven Jackson, Observer staff Reporter, The Jamaica Observer.
This is a
revenue increase, by the way, of 1.2% to US$8.8 million (JA$756 million) from
2009 to 2010 worldwide (yes including Jamaica!!),
based on the stats from the International Federation of the Phonographic
Industry (IFPI).
Not
surprising, as a recent Pew Study hailing out of Harvard in the article “Study: So people do
pay for online content”, published December 30, 2010 7:43 AM
PST by Lance Whitney, Digital Media - CNET News suggested that people are wiling to make online purchases.
A
baseline of one thousand (1000) people conducted from October 28th 2010 to November 1st 2010, it revealed that of the seven
hundred and fifty (750) Internet users, 65% of them spent online, with about
43% averaging US$10 per purchase.
Spotify two
(2) year rise is based on this trend as well as their Freemium model as chronicled in my blog article entitled “Spotify
and Freemium in the cloud - Shake, Rattle and Roll love for Internationals”.
Thus it
is not surprising that these positive indicators of progress show such
interesting connections to the Internet, as this decrease in Crime and the
corresponding increase in Online Purchases is an increasing indication of the
positive effects that the increase knowledge and contentment that the Internet
brings.
No doubt,
Jamaicans do now love their new found online freedoms, political Voice of
Protest and financial earning potential to the point of being more “honest” via
the income accrued from using the Internet.
Money
earned “illegally” by downloading music or movies fore retail as well as
setting up your own website.
Please
note the “illegal” is in quotes; the Amazon Cloud Drive with its associated Amazon Cloud Player not only makes the Apple
iTunes look obsolete, but the
added curse of possibly being legit will make their model readily copied by
budding music entrepreneurs in Jamaica wiling to start an Online Radio Station
for listeners.
More on
that also in a blog article on the Geezam Blog!
Social
Networking as a means of making money this time an entrepreneurial drive based
on advertising and Internet Traffic. Clarendonian Jehovah’s Witness friend of
mine, who has a buzzing Social Network named ReconnectJA,
for which I am currently writing a review later on for the Geezam
Blog.
Thus a
lower inclination to commit Crime and more money to spend online, the
common-sense connection!
A bit of
an oversimplification, yet, but it makes sense if you can get access to a Virtual VISA Credit Card and combine it with a Paypal
Account.
My self
as an example, having both a Virtual VISA Credit Card being utilized via my Paypal
Account, which enables another part of my new found entrepreneurial venture
of fixing and repairing PC for JA$2000 and selling Laptops and PC’s purchased
online as stated in my blog article entitled “Gmail
Motion is SLOOW & other April Fool's Jokes - Armstrong's Firefly”.
So it is
nice to know that the Government of Jamaica is aware of the Internet’s
potential to make it citizenry more knowledgeable and peaceable, being
contented in making money from the Internet via various legal and “illegal”
means.
This as
they have co-opted the services of both Telecom Provider LIME and Triple Play Provider FLOW to build out the most ambitious Fiber
Optics Internet Project I have seen or heard of to date.
And
unlike the above news, this broke the light of the newspapers on lucky Thursday
April 7th 2011AD in
articles entitled “$543-million
Internet Plan”, published Thursday, April 07, 2011 by Ingrid
Brown, Senior Staff Reporter, The
Jamaica Observer and
corroborated in the article “Jamaican
Schools to go high-tech”, published Thursday April 7, 2011 by Arthur
Hall, Senior Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner.
This
ambitious and futuristic Project (Star
Trek anyone!?) is completely
being funded by the Telecom Providers - or more specifically the UAFCL
(Universal Access Fund Company Limited).
For those
who came late to the Telecom Providers discussion on my blog, the UAFCL is a gigantic picnic basket of
money that the Government of Jamaica collected from the very same Telecom
Providers in the form of Tax or Levy, much as is done in the Bauxite Industry.
It took
quite a bit of negotiation for the two-way deal to be ratified to contract the
services of these two (2) undoubtedly capable Telecom Providers with significant
experience in the laying of Fiber Optic.
In
effect, they are getting their money back in exchange for building this Fiber
Optics Internet Project. Minister of Information, Daryl Vaz, describes the
ambitious nature of this Project, quote: “Any community, however remote, which
has a public secondary or high school will be provided with facilities for
Internet access. This Project is anticipated to facilitate modern services such
as videoconferencing and more efficient use of our teaching resources through
the establishment of virtual classrooms. These resources will allow students to
access stored subject matter lessons and to take online practice tests and
examinations”
Very
clever indeed, Government of Jamaica!
The UAFCL
is the source for the JA$543 million funding for ambitious Fiber Optics
Internet Project to provide speeds of 100MBps, scalable to 1GBps to EVERY Government High School. The Fiber Optics Internet
Project, first of its kind, is to begin hitting its stride in the next eighteen
(18) months, with a Project time spanning five (5) years.
This is
the same UAFCL that provided the JA$2 billion funding for the e-Learning
Project, another Government of Jamaica initiative under a previous political
Administration, the People’s National Party (PNP).
This
initiative, being spearheaded under the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party)-led
Government of Jamaica, is future proof, both in the scalability of speeds as
well as guaranteeing its continuation of funding from the UAFCL, should
Jamaicans become fickle at the polls and vote the PNP into power. Any more
cribbed words from the various articles will land me in trouble with the
respective newspaper journalists. So I will do myself the justice of one more
such quote.
Triple
Play Provider FLOW President
and CEO Michele “Dallas” English best summed up the significance of this Fiber
Optics Networks Project, set to interconnect almost three hundred (300) schools
islandwide, quote: “The impact of this immediately has seen Jamaica moving up
the ICT ladder now into the top 15 countries in the world, ranking higher than
places such as the US, the United Kingdom and Canada. Many schools are
currently utilizing the power of this technology and we think that by putting
together an integrated network with our partner that covers the whole of the
country, it will significantly enhance the learning and the teaching
environment that exist”.
In five
(5) years time, Jamaica will have an island wide Fiber Optics
Internet Project, as obviously, the excess capacity would have to be utilized
by possibly provisioning paid Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) or FiOS (Fiber
Optic Service) to communities nearby.
In that
space of time, Telecom Provider Digicel should have completely blanketed the
island with their 10MBps Digicel WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d, e) Network!
Ditto to for Telecom Provider CLARO, who should have also by then
launched their 100MBps capable LTE (Long Term Evolution) Network to match
Triple Play Provider FLOW as
stated in my blog article entitled “CLARO,
LIME and HSDPA+ - CEO Michelle English, the Maverick”.
Also, in
the United States of America, Telecom
Provider Verizon in partnership with Japanese Telecom
Equipment Supplier and electronics component maker NEC should have rolled out
their 1TBps Network as I had foreseen to come to pass by earliest 2014AD in my blog article entitled
The
commercial aspect of it is a huge boost to the two (2) Telecoms providers, who
can take advantage of this Government of Jamaica initiated, UAFCL Levy funded
Fiber Optics Internet Project and use the spare capacity to provide a plethora
of Internet Services. Optimistically their partnership could continue and be
likely modeled off Telecom Provider Verizon FiOS service.
A fact
expressed by Managing Director of LIME, Garry Sinclair, quote: “While all of us
at LIME are obviously excited about the commercial side of this Project, the
real satisfaction comes knowing that we will be part of an initiative that will
be a critical catalyst in the development of our country”.
Telecom
Provider LIME and
Triple Play Provider FLOW may
also go their separate ways after the Project is finished, simply using the
completed Fiber Optics Internet Project as backhaul [interconnecting
Transmission facility] for their respective ADSL (Asynchronous Digital
Subscriber Line), Triple Play Digital Cable Service or even 3G or Municipal
Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Networks respectively.
Looks
like this Project is not only a gateway to a more prosperous and Internet
connected and possibly Crime free future, as it would put Jamaica, a Developing
country, on the same level as most First World or Developed World Nations as
Telecom Provider LIME and
Triple Play Provider FLOW work
together, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder Ebony and Ivory Style!
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