FLOW vs LIME, Digicel, CLARO and Municipal Wi-Fi - The Empire Strikes Back Part Deux

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God

Anon., which means Lindsworth Deer suggested this to Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790)

Telecom Provider Digicel has finally gotten the good news of the blessing from the Holy See from the ITU (International Telecommunications Union), the Telecoms regulatory arm of the UN (United Nations), with regards to their 4G Status as per the article “Digicel/ITU confirms classification of WiMaX as 4G”, published Friday, December 24, 2010, The Jamaica Observer, a ruling of which I was well aware of since December 6^th 2010, just getting around to it in my blog article entitled “Digicel the ITU and Samsung Galaxy Tablet - The Sorcerer's Apprentice”.

After all, the ITU is the Telecoms equivalent of the Papacy in the Catholic World, and their decrees handed down from Vatican City [Geneva, Switzerland] to the Telecoms Cardinals [CEO’s] worldwide is law, fact know to all trained Telecoms people, but oft forgotten by the younger set of Technicians – and unknown to Outsiders, at least those not reading newspapers and those not reading my blog!

Of course, Telecom Provider is not vocal about it, but I am sure that they immediately made a submission to the FTC (Fair Trading Commission) regarding the ITU’s ruling and thus have the claim of misrepresentation made by Telecom Provider LIME’s Regional vice-president for Legal, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Camille Taylor (more long titles!!! Gosh!!!) dismissed.

Please note that this is, strictly speaking, a regulatory claim, not legal claim, as the FTC is not a court, merely an arm of the Government of Jamaica’s Telecom Regulatory Board to oversee that Telecom Providers, albeit FDI (Foreign Direct Investors), are not deceiving Customers. Legal action as a means of revenge, therefore, is a meaningless reaction and is not in keeping with the Art of War, a guidebook for competition among Japanese and Chinese Technology giants, too numerous to list.

Clever touch therefore, for Telecom Provider Digicel to show themselves as not being spoiled sports and in the spirit of good competition, they also rolled out the Samsung Galaxy Tablet, packing the Big Guns in the form of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), as a means of trouncing LIME TV in the market as per my blog article entitled “LIME TV vs. Digicel's Samsung Galaxy Tablet - Call of Duty Black Ops”.

Throw in the fact that it will help to save Newspapers, give Jamaicans freedom of choice to watch content on YouTube, Netflix, Hulu (assuming they can get Virtual VISA Credit Cards and PayPal on a wire transfer enable bank account!) and help both Television Jamaica and CVM TV all in one go (sounding a bit British, eh! I’m excited!!), not to mention Streamed Video Game playing such as from the likes of Steam as well as OnLive, assuming of course the free apps form the Google Market place are not to your liking, which I would prefer.

This is no longer a threat to LIME TV, it is a bonafide LIME TV killer as subtly suggested in my blog article entitled “Digicel, Samsung Galaxy Tablets and Newspapers - Tomorrow Never Dies and the Paper Man”. Telecom Provider Digicel is truly a benevolent shogun.

Mark you, it will be a success; Bigger screen, richer colour, even the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Tablet may come with 3G capability, for which you must pay.

This irony will resonate with many Telecom Provider Digicel  Customers as decidedly benevolent and odd, showing that as the Market leader, Telecom Provider Digicel is fairer in competition than their detractors - and thus push them to either use Dekal Wireless and Nubian-1- Tech Services Limited or the FREE Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) that comes with their Zyxtel - WiFi Modem - IX-280P or CPE (Customer Premises Equipment).

Not only will it have the proud distinction of being the first Tablet in Jamaica successfully promoted by a Telecom Provider with Telecom Provider Digicel behind it, but it will definitely be a blueprint as to how to make a Tablet a success in a Developing World country already used to Netbooks and Laptops.

LIME TV just got the air punched out of their sails by sheer innovation alone – a Tablet whose design, whether you believe it or not, is a suggestion of mine to Samsung via a bunch of brain dead Shurpower Engineers in April of 2009. Not to mention just having a bigger 7” AMOLED screen, truly evidence of them being the “Bigger, Better Network”.

Oh wait, I did recommend that to Telecom Provider LIME via email, and I DID rant about in my blog article entitled “LIME TV v Netflix - 101 Dalmatians”. Telecom Provider LIME needs to pull out the big Guns, otherwise the LIME TV phones will become expensive paperweights only TechJamaica, aficionados of failed tech products with no mass sex appeal, will love.

They will have to roll out the stealth bomber that is set-top boxes for TV’s (possibly offering persons a HDTV compliant Flat Screen TV in the process?) as well as the app/codec to enable viewing on existing Blackberry and other smart phones or launch their own Tablet to sell their LIME TV platform.

May I at this point recommend to Telecom Provider LIME the as yet launched Motorola Tablet as per my blog article entitled “Motorola, RIM and the Tablet - Indiana Jones and the Palace of Doom”. Thus, they would be inviting war on another front, that being Cable TV, this time with Triple Play Provider FLOW CEO Michelle “Dallas” English, who will have to then pull out the real Big Guns in an all out shoot-out, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) style.

This is with services ranging from Video Calling to Video Game Platforms services such as from Steam as well as OnLive ….albeit I must admit, my imagination runs the gamut of the strange sometimes!

Telecom Provider LIME, as Broadcasters would have long ago told them, the viewers in the Broadcasting Market has very finicky tastes; DC Digital, the content provider behind LIME TV, has a lot to learn.

Telecom Provider Digicel must be very grateful that they did not make the deal with DC Digital to roll out DigiTV as per the article “'DigiTV launch for 2009' - Mobile Provider branches into TV”, published Friday November 14^th 2009 by Ross Sheil, Online Co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer.

DigiTV had already been prognosticated to be a failure in Jamaica as suggested by Gleaner Reporter Mark Titus in the article “Digicel diversifies - USU500m data center opens in November”, published: Friday August 28, 2009 by Mark Titus, Business Reporter.

Evidence that it may be so, despite Telecom Provider Digicel’s success with DigiTV in Vanatu and Samoa islands in the Pacific, can be seen from the recent failure of Flo TV as per the article “Qualcomm prepares to ditch Flo TV”, published October 5, 2010 6:05 PM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength, now a dead service as no-one knows why anyone would watch TV on a phone.

I would write it off as poor marketing, as streaming Netflix and YouTube via smart phones is now popular. The spectrum originally used to port the service is purportedly being sold off to Telecom Provider AT&T for Cellular Services as per the article “AT&T eyes 4G shift with Qualcomm spectrum deal”, published December 20, 2010 6:28 AM PST by Don Reisinger, CNET News - The Digital Home and confirmed in the article “AT&T to buy Qualcomm's Spectrum licenses for US$1.93 billion”, published December 20, 2010 by Reuters.

Telecom Provider LIME, however, may have escaped this assassination with a flesh wound; LIME TV is a VAS within a VAS, so their expenditure was modest, built on their 3G Network as per my explanation in my blog article entitled “LIME and LIME TV - Lara Croft Tomb Raider”.

Clever, Telecom Provider Digicel in their never-ending battle against Telecom Provider LIME; Marketing trumps Technical know-how yet again. But in the midst of all this brouhaha, a pattern is slowly beginning to coalesce.

Here is Telecom Provider CLARO, who appears to be locked in a titanic struggle to beat Triple Play Provider FLOW in the equivalent of speeds races akin to Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) movie to see who is the fastest, something only technology geeks would appreciate.

Telecom Provider CLARO made the announcement that they are going LTE (Long Term Evolution) as a counterweight to Triple Play Provider FLOW CEO Michelle “Dallas” English announcement of going 100MBps as per my blog article entitled “CLARO vs FLOW - Cats and Dogs The Revenge of Kitty Galore” which was actually based on rumours of Telecom Provider CLARO planning to go LTE as my blog article entitled “LIME vs Digicel - The Truth About Charlie”.

Now Triple Play Provider FLOW facing competition from all sides as well and they are all Wireless. Alliances albeit not officially so, being formed between Telecom Provider Digicel and Wayne Chen and Lees owned Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Networks such as Dekal Wireless and Nubian-1- Tech Services Limited via this Samsung Galaxy Tablet.

LIME TV and their half-baked product, soon to become fully-baked with the launch of Set-Top Boxes and an app/codec making the service viewable on any mobile phone, looms large yet quiet, like the submarine in the movie Hunt for Red October as per my blog article entitled “LIME TV and Broadcasting - Hunt for Red October”.

A possible software upgrade to HSDPA+, which is now 4G thanks to the ITU, may soon be the weapon of choice for Telecom Provider CLARO 3G weapon built by Huawei in the interim building out their LTE Network powered by Ericsson to stave off competition from Telecom Provider Digicel . Telecom Provider LIME  may be considering this soon as well, as traffic build up due to LIME TV and other streaming activity as their Network slowly expands.

Even the Big Three (3) Broadcasters, the Calvary in this whole strategy, are being reluctantly drawn into the battle, with both Television Jamaica and CVM TV already outfitting X-Wing fighters…. ..er…….I mean shielded servers to stream their content betwixt being forced under the gun by the Broadcasting Commission to go HDTV.

Possibly by 2012 AD as per my blog article entitled “Telecom Providers, 100MBps Broadband and the Broadcasting Commission - Redemption Song” as well as the article “Broadcasting and Digital Switch Over - Back to the Future to compete with LIME TV”.

Radio, not to be left out, is tagging along tagging along as per my blog article entitled “Broadcasters, Radio and DSO - What will be the Fate of Radio after DSO”. The Empire is Truly Striking Back!

This is a classic old never-ending battle, folks, being played out in a complex battle scenario that is heavily movie themed and geek centric that not even the Techies at TechJamaica do not even realize – unless you are figuratively standing on a high mountain, overlooking the proceedings going on below as I am, as a blogger Batman Forever (1995) and Star Wars: Episode IV - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) style!

What, oh what will Triple Play Provider FLOW CEO Michelle “Dallas” English do, having set off all this “demand” now engulfing her company with counter-attack after counter attack? Stay tuned to my blog and find out in the next exciting episode!!!……….. Gossip Girl style, XOXO.