Telecom
Provider LIME,
in a bid to reduce the cost of running its network, has decided to outsource
maintenance to Telecom Equipment Supplier Ericsson Jamaica over a seven (7)
year period as was announced in The
Jamaica Observer article “LIME to lay off 300 as it partners with
Ericsson”, published Tuesday, March 26, 2013 6:28 AM, The Jamaica Observer.
The
Gleaner gave a bit more details of contract deal with Ericsson, which becomes
effective Thursday May 30th 2013, in the article “LIME outsources operations to Ericsson”,
published Wednesday March 27, 2013, The
Jamaica Gleaner.
Effectively,
Ericsson is to handle all aspects of Landline, Internet and Mobile, Mobile TV from
Tower to CPE (Customer Premesis Equiptment) at the customer’s home. This deal in
not dissimilar in nature to the one struck by CLARO in 2009 for Huawei to
control Maintenance of their Cell Sites and JNAP (Jamaica Network Access Point)
to do Generator Maintenance. Just more
extensive and with more things to maintain! More interestingly, this means that
both Telecom Provider LIME
and Digicel
have the same Mobile Maintenance Contractor.
The
layoffs also involved some 305 persons in a bid to cut Telecom Provider LIME’s operating
costs of some J$10
billion annually on its operations, J$4 billion or 40% of which is staff
salaries and emoluments. And apparently, by Thursday May 30th
2013, all employees laid off in the restructuring exercise will be re-employed
with Ericsson, according to Managing Director of LIME Jamaica,
Garfield Sinclair in the article “Displaced
LIME workers will be offered jobs at Ericsson – Sinclair”,
published 7:24 am, Thu April 4, 2013, RJR
News.
Clearly
this is more than just an exercise to reduce the cost of maintenance. Telecom
Provider LIME
is also gearing up for a bid for one of the two (2) 700MHz Spectrum that can be
utilized to provide LTE (Long Term Evolution) Wireless Broadband Internet,
which coincidentally was also announced on the same day as noted in my blog
article entitled “Minister
Paulwell in Parliament debut two 700MHz Licenses for 4G LTE for Monday July 15 2013
Auction - 4G LTE Means After Earth Everything is Possible”.
So
if the cost of obtaining and exploiting these fifteen (15) year 700MHz Spectrum
licenses, which is about US$45 million on average, based on the article “US$40-MILLION broadband licences”,
published Wednesday, April 17, 2013 by CAMILO THAME Business
co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer,
may increase to on average about US$1 billion per year, why don’t the Telecom
Providers create a Shared 4G LTE Network?
Right
now, however, this action by Telecom Provider LIME means that they
and their competitor Telecom Provider Digicel
share the same Telecom Equiptment Provider, Ericsson. Telecom Provider Digicel
pushing its cheaper Digicel
DL600 aka the rebranded Alcatel One Touch S'Pop smartphone in a bid to boost mobile
4G usage as noted in my blog
article entitled “Digicel
to launch the DL600 Smartphone by Mid-May 2013 starting below US$100 - Alcatel
One Touch running Firefox OS marketed like The Incredible Burt Wonderstone”.
Most
likely Telecom Provider LIME
and Telecom Provider Digicel
will have to share one of the cheaper licenses as recent changes in the
Telecoms Act indicate they’ll have to share Tower infrastructure instead of
building new Towers. At 700MHz, neither Telecom Provider Digicel
or LIME
have any need to build new towers, as the frequency guarantees good propagation
over greater distances with less power.
However,
as it’s two (2) licenses split up from the three (3) block of 700MHz spectrum
and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining being very keen on
competition to achieve 90% coverage and hopefully the same level of Internet
access in five (5) years time, a Shared 4G LTE Network is no longer a
possibility, it’s an inevitability. Especially as the CAPEX (Capital
Expenditure) for build-out and the eventual pricing of the 100MBps 4G LTE
Tiered Services (for lower speeds) will be high, oweing to the need to have all
towers interconnected via Fiber Optic Backhaul.
After
all, if Telecom Provider LIME
and Triple Play Provider FLOW funded by the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) UAFCL (Universal Access Fund Company Limited) can
team up to build a 100MBps Fiber Optic Network as detailed in my blog
article entitled “LIME,
FLOW and the $JA543-million Internet plan - Ebony and Ivory”,
why can’t Telecom Provider LIME
and Digicel
team up for a joint bid for the 700MHz Spectrum License to provide 4G LTE
Broadband Internet?
The
other Spectrum license of the pair is most likely being reserved for a still
unknown Third Telecom Provider. Which leads to another possible scenario: both
Telecom Provider LIME
and Telecom Provider Digicel
may find their own dancing partners aside from each other. This may be one of
the local Telecom Providers such as Triple Play Provider FLOW (excellent choice
as they have expertise in Fiber Optic Cable laying) or Dekal Wireless, who have
a great deal of expertise in running a Municipal Wi-Fi Network, which may
consider to be a possible Last Mile solution.
Or
it may be with a FDI (Foreign Direct Investor), such as Telecom Provider
T-Mobile, Vodafone or even Verizon from the US of A. One thing I’ve learned is
that in the Telecoms world, Everything is Possible.
An
example of this kind of teaming-up can be seen from the Tag team of Denis
O’Brien owned Digicel
Group with Digicel
Billionaire investor George Soro's Quantum Strategic Partners Limited and
Billionaire investor Serge Pun’s YSH Finance Limited, a member of the Yoma
Strategic Holdings Group to bid for the Myanmar Telecom License as reported in “Digicel partners with Soros, Pun on
Myanmar telecoms bid”, published Sunday April 7, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner.
So you see, this is VERY possible here in Jamaica.
And
BOTH Telecom Provider have begun pushing Tablets to kiddies in recent PR
(Public Relations) donations of Tablets as noted in “Praise Tab using tablets to learn”,
published Monday April 8, 2013, The
Jamaica Gleaner and “Seven
Primary Schools in East Kingston Get Tablet Computers”,
published Tuesday, 09 April 2013 11:37, Written by JIS, The Jamaica Information Service.
Details on this in another article!
No comments:
Post a Comment