Digicel and WiMax 4G Mobile - The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend

Serene I fold my hands and wait,

Nor care for wind or tide nor sea;

I rave no more ‘gainst time of fate,

For lo! My own shall come to me.

John Burroughs, Waiting

Looks like Telecom Providers may be affected in more ways than one. Members of John Public in Jamaica, upon reading the article “Digicel all set to unveil 4G Broadband offering”, published Friday, August 13, 2010 by AL EDWARDS, The Jamaica Observer!

This according to The Jamaica Observer as it relates to why Telecom Provider Digicel was NOT launching with mobile smart phones and that Telecom Provider Digicel is launching ONLY with Netbooks, Laptops and 4G-to-Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Routers or Mobile hotspots, more properly called CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) and the naive reasons that WiMaX CEO, Alex Boothroyd stated, naturally realized that the game was out the window.

Instantly, Jamaicans I know began checking out prices for mobile smart phones on CNET News and other sites of similar ilk and discovered that the price was indeed around US$500.

Many promptly called their relatives abroad and had them purchase a WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) Video Calling capable smart phone such as the Motorola Droid 2, HTC 4G EVO and the Samsung Epic 4G, of the Galaxy S family, which, curiously has been selling rather well as stated in the article “Samsung ships 1 million Galaxy S smart phones in the US”, published Monday 30^th 2010 by Yahoo! News.

On the flip side, persons also noticed the lower prices on Laptops and Netbooks abroad, mainly due to competition from the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle as stated in the article “Demand dichotomy; PCs down, iPad up”, published August 11, 2010 3:58 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News Nanotech - The Circuits Blog.

Promptly masses of people stopped buying the ones shipped here locally and instead Calling people abroad and ordering them to purchase Netbooks and Laptops, armed with the prior experience that Telecom Provider CLARO and Telecom Provider Digicel had disabled the Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) as a means of denying them choice in terms of Broadband Wireless Internet.

Worse, this is now glaringly evident especially in light of the lower pricing points of Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Network Dekal Wireless and ANKHS Limited re-branded as Nubian -1 Tech Services Limited.

These Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Network are now pursuing the same strategy as Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Network Dekal Wireless by purchasing T1 access from FLOW and setting up their very own Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Network as stated in the “Another small player emerges in the wireless broadband market”, published Friday August 2 2010 by Mark Titus, gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.  

Good to note at this point that both Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Networks are part owned and financed by Wayne Chen and a slew of Chinese Jiaolong or Sea Dragons as stated in the article “Wayne Chen, Lees enter Wireless Broadband Market”, published Friday July 30^th 2010 by Mark Titus, Business Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner,

Wayne Chen has is somehow connected to Michael Lee Chin, a sitting board member on FLOW, who may be assisting his closest relative in what appears to be a Rebel Alliance fight against the Trade Blockade imposed on the people of Naboo, as the names of both Dekal Wireless and Nubian-1 are names of a type of Droid [the Droid Dekal] and the spaceship of her Royal Highness, Queen Amidala of the Naboo [Nubian-1] of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace fame respectively. Looks like even Jamaica is going bonkers over George Lucas Star Wars as is Motorola and its entire series of smart phones is Star Wars branded.

The Motorola Droid 2 and the Motorola Droid X as stated in the article “HTC Evo 4G, Incredible shortages make room for Droid X”, published Monday July 12 2010 by Jared Newman, Yahoo! News, is now in short supply.

And the soon to debut Motorola Droid R2-D2 as stated in the article “R2-D2 Droid 2 Edition to arrive in September”, published August 16, 2010 5:07 PM PDT by Scott Webster, CNET News - Android Atlas, Motorola having formally inked a re-branding deal with George Lucas of Star Wars Directorial fame. Even Samsung is following the Sci-fi trend with its Galaxy S fleet of smart phones and tablets  as stated in the article “Samsung touts new Tablet, smart phones”, published June 16, 2010 8:38 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News- Wireless.

But there is worse yet in store for Telecom Provider Digicel. Thanks to their lower entry pricing point for their CPE (Customer Premises Equipment), Jamaicans on hearing of the offer by Google to allow people to make cross border Canada-USA calls to any landline of mobile network number free for one (1) year using an integrated Google Voice dialer in Gmail for free as stated in the article “Google: 1 million Gmail calls during first day”, published August 26, 2010 12:38 PM PDT by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Deep Tech will be elated as well as in my blog entitled “Google and Google Voice - The World is Not Enough”.

Persons with a Gmail account apparently love it so much that approximately one million (1,000,000) called in the first 24 hours of this service debut, effectively one (1) call in every three thousand (3000) calls went through this platform in this 24 hour period. And of course Gmail to Gmail calls are free, making this ultimately better than Skype.

This as the pricing model for International calls mimics those prices already on offer by Google Voice, making porting work to Google Docs worth the trouble. So how does this service, not yet “custom fitted” to Jamaica as Mary J. Bligh, obviously the great- great-grand-daughter of Captain Bligh who brought the breadfruit to Jamaica, affect us?

For one, it does make International Calling to Jamaica by our Canadian and American relatives cheaper, if you have a mobile smart phone, even the Apple iPhone, which was forced to reinstate the Google Voice app the true power behind this feature after it was removed unceremoniously as stated in the article “AT&T to allow VoIP iPhone apps on 3G Network”, published October 6, 2009 4:46 PM PDT by Jim Dalrymple, CNET News - Apple, a feature already standard on other mobile smart phones and Telecom Providers such as Telecom Provider Verizon in the United States of America.

It also make persons with a Digicel Broadband 4G CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) or dongle, or even a Telecom Provider CLARO or Telecom Provider LIME Modem realize that Calls can be made from their computers via the Internet, whether via Skype, Yahoo Messenger or this newly minted interface and thus set off a trend of people NOT making International calls using their mobile phones.

VoIP is now back in style, for now, especially as International Calling is more and more becoming a “Video Calling from my computer in front of my TV in my settee” kind of affair, with family involved, mobile phones being used for private personal International Calling, which the ultra-speedy Digicel Broadband 4G is very much suited.

Hence the rash of interest by Jamaican bargain hunters to purchase WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) capable “jail-broken” and unlocked  handsets via relatives in the United States of America to utilize Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) services to make such private mobile Video calls over the cloud a reality. Did I forget to mention the possibility of a revamped US$99 Apple iTV with FaceTime Video Calling feature as slyly opined by ZDTV pundit David Gewirtz in the article “FaceTime could be Apple iTV's killer app”, published August 23, 2010, 7:35am PDT, By David Gewirtz, ZDNet Government?

Thus Digicel Broadband 4G threat to The Big Three (3) Broadcasters will be averted by the RJR Communications Group using Bluetooth advertising, a type of Direct Targeted Marketing in a partnership with BlueWave Caribbean, a UK based entrepreneur in this field as stated in the article “Bluetooth ads coming to cellphones soon”, published Wednesday, August 25, 2010 by Alicia Roache Business reporter, The Jamaica Observer.

Direct Targeted Marketing being a very close cousin of Behavioral Targeted Advertising as stated in the article “Study: Like it or not, behavioral ad targeting works”, published March 24, 2010 9:01 AM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News – The Social.

Indeed, they have also revamped their offering on their website so as to stream live Television such as Smile Jamaica and Prime Time News Television Jamaica's main programming, from their Website and provide on-demand viewing of archived programs and downloading, thought the downloading bit is unconfirmed at the time of writing this blog.

With Digicel Broadband 4G now a reality, this upgrade was necessary, as another beating similar to the Second Quarter Losses endured in 2010 as stated in the article “RJR profits drop 53% in June Q”, published Friday, August 20, 2010, The Jamaica Observer would make Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico or even the wealthy Chinese Broadcasters from the People’s Republic of China start circling like vultures, ready to devour their rotting carcass.

This drop-off in profits is not only a reflection of the JDX (Jamaica Debt Exchange) and the company’s heavy reliance on Government of Jamaica Paper to subsidize its profitability but also reflects the trend of viewers in the United States of America who no longer watch live Television.

They now belong to the 62% of the viewing demographic that uses DVR (Digital Video Recorders), Hulu and Netflix to consume their media as stated in the article “Survey of viewers shows extent of TV time shifting”, published Tuesday August 17, 6:53 am ET By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer, Yahoo! News and confirmed in the follow-up article “DVR's shaking up movie marketing”, published Monday August 23, 2:30 am ET By Georg Szalai, Yahoo! News.

Telecom Provider LIME Mobile TV package as stated in the article “TV on your mobile phone this Christmas”, published Friday, August 27, 2010, The Jamaica Observer,)  and confirmed by the article “LIME goes Mobile TV”, published Saturday August 28 by Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.

It is also helpful but will only be relevant if the price is right and the mobile phones used are 4” AMOLED (Amorphous Organic Light Emitting Diode) with at least 720p HD (High Definition) or Retina Display with support for either “tethering” via Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n).

Wi-Fi Direct is also an option to allow for streaming to a HDTV Television set, with optional HDMI (High Definition Media Interface) port or even fiber optic port just enough to make it attractive enough for even the casual TV watcher wishing to catch news in the traffic, specs which I specified for the HTC and Motorola phones. Remember YouTube is free and Hulu is a US$10 thirty (30) day subscription streaming model, with Apple iTV an unconfirmed US$0.99 cents rental, thought if it will be accessible to Jamaicans remains an issue of interest and speculation.

All this make the title of this article more ominous, as now John Public gradually is beginning to see that the Enemy of my enemy [Telecom Provider Digicel] and their WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) Broadband may truly be in fact the friend of all Jamaicans, as it has inspired increased competition via lower cost Internet without modems via Dekal Wireless and Nubian -1 Tech Services Limited, VoIP Video Calling and on-demand Video programming offerings from the RJR Communications Group.

All things Jamaicans have been clamoring for quite some time now, only being offered when this Big Behemoth made it debut on the market threatening their closed comfortable business models. John Public suspects Telecom Provider CLARO may have some announcement next week, in keeping with the trend of back-to-back announcements.

Meanwhile I await the coming of the chosen Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Network – Skywalker……………