Here is a summary of the major activity thus far of Telecoms Providers activity in Jamaica since 3G and 4G announcements in 2008:
1. CLARO’s GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) RBS (Radio Base Station) is installed and maintained by Huawei with operating frequencies of 850Mhz and 1900 Mhz
2. CLARO’s UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) is installed and maintained by Huawei. and powers their 3G network.
3. CLARO’s Their CDMA (Code Division multiple Access) 1900 Network installed and maintained by Huawei.
4. Digicel, their closest rival, has a WiMax 4G Fixed (IEEE 802.16a) installed and maintained by Alvirion since 2007 and a WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) installed and maintained by ZTE Corp of China in 2009, slated to be operational in mid 2010 as stated in the article "Digicel to launch 4G WiMAX across Jamaica”, published Wednesday, 02 September 2009, written by TechJamaica.com, “DIGICEL SIGNS ZTE AS 4G MOBILE WIMAX INTERNET PARTNER”, published Sunday, September 27, 2009, The Sunday Observer and “Digicel to offer mini laptops with 4G service next year”, published: Friday September 4, 2009, The Friday Financial Times
5. Digicel is soon to launch DigiTV as has already been successfully launched in Tonga, Vanatu and Samoa Island “'DigiTV' launch for 2009 - Mobile provider branches into TV”, published Friday, November 14, 2008 Ross Sheil, Online Co-ordinator rsheil@jamaicaobserver.com
6. LIME has a GSM network RBS installed and maintained by Nortel in 2002-2003 and later upgraded to Ericsson in 2009 to 2010, with a planned launch island wide with speeds of up to 4.6 Mbps and designed as a platform to host LIME TV, which is wireless DTV (Digital Subscriber Television), slated to be launched in 2010. They have an all island license to broadcast island wide from the SMA (Spectrum Management Authority) and a license to rebroadcast Direct TV
7. LIME has launched a prepaid 3G mobile internet platform, with offerings of one day pass for JA$300, seven (7) day pass for JA$1250 and a thirty (30) day pass for JA$3500, currently discounted to JA$1500 in an effort to break into the mobile 3G market currently dominated by CLARO as stated in the article “LIME LAUNCES PREPAID MOBILE”, published Friday, April 09, 2010, The Daily Observer
8. LIME has just completed a major Fiber Optic deal to lay undersea fiber optic cables for Gran Caribe between Jamaica and Cuba as stated in the article “LIME lands fibre link partnership”, published April 24th 2010 by Business Section, The Daily Gleaner
9. Digicel has also relaunched their DataCenter to provide dynamic and static offline data storage as stated in the article “Digicel diversifies - $500m data centre opens November”, Published: Friday, August 28, 2009, Mark Titus, Business Reporter
As for their future plan for fiscal years 2010 to 2012, it mostly involves:
1. Video Calling push from both LIME. CLARO and Digicel using their 3G and 4G networks both on mobile phones and with set top boxes and Television sets
2. MNP (Mobile number Portability) between now and 2012
3. Data Center services, both Static and Dynamic, being offered by Digicel, CLARO and LIME
4. CDMA 1900 for roaming from foreigners from the USA market as well as wireless landline to compete with LIME's Homefone Express and Digicel's Wimax 4G Fixed (IEEE 802.16a) and Wimax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) offering the same services under DigiBusiness and DigiCorp
5. More Netbooks on plans with Data services and more phones, particularly smart phones with dual 4G/3G chipsets, Android Operating systems, Video calling capabilities and running Open Source Software, which is cheaper. Also CLARO may be launching the Apple Ipad and the Apple Iphone 3GS either in the Summer or in Christmas, with Digicel and LIME countering with the HP Slate and the Microsoft Courier.
6. Migration to 4G for CLARO and LIME which involves migrating to LTE (Long Term Evolution). Digicel migrating to Wimax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d)
7. Unlimited Music and Video Download Plans as a common distribution platform for music, phasing out the need to purchase CD, DVD
8. Digital Wireless Subscriber Television launches in the form of Digicel DigiTV, LIME’s LIME TV with possible Web TV launches from CLARO
9. Investments in research in Biofuels and Alternative Energy in anticipation of the coming application for Licenses under the Energy Policy implemented by Senator James Robertson, Minister of Energy and Mining, Radio Wave experimentation as it relates to the “white space” spectrum that will be available when Broadcast Commission decided to undertake DSO (Digital Switch Over)
10. Personal tracking without the need for GPS using single tower triangulation as suggested in the article “Global Positioning Without GPS”, published September 13, 2009, 11:30PM EST by Kevin Tofel, BusinessWeek GIGAOM
11. Alternative Energy to power cell sites as suggested in the article “Powering cell phone towers with wind”, published November 11, 2009 11:35 AM PST by Candace Lombardi, CNET News – Green Tech using the Bloom Energy Servers as stated in the article “Parsing fact from fiction with the Bloom Energy box”, published March 1, 2010 11:11 AM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News – Green Tech making cell sites completely independent of JPS
Information on the Telecoms Providers is best found on the following sites:
https://www.go-jamaica.com and check the Archives
https://www.techjamaica.com and check their archives
https://www.cnet.com and check their archives
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