ReadyTV's Wireless Cable in Q1 2017 challenges CVMTV, TVJ, FLOW, Digicel and Caricel

“This is the first digital broadcast tower in the country and we are aiming to have at least 18 across the island. With this technology, we will join other Caribbean islands, including Haiti and Trinidad, and other countries in Latin America, Europe and the United States that already have a digital broadcast network”

President and CEO of ReadyTV Christopher Dehring on ReadyTV's plans to launch HDTV in 2017

Looks like FLOW Horizon and Digicel Play and getting competition in the First Quarter of 2017. And from all the information out there, it appears to be Wireless Cable TV with 4G LTE.

ReadyTV, which is owned by DISL (Digital Interactive Services Limited), will be launching in the First Quarter of 2016 as reported in the article “ReadyTV On Target For 2017 Launch” published Friday November 18, 2016 by Keisha Hill, The Jamaica Gleaner. 

President and CEO of ReadyTV Christopher Dehring has even hinted at plans to launch 4G LTE, once they've established their Wireless Cable TV service in Jamaica. Effectively they're really planning to challenge Caricel, who have already rolled out their modem offering for faster LTE for 2017 as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Caricel’s Unlimited Modems implies FLOW and Digicel going Unlimited in 2017”. 

So who are the people behind ReadyTV?

ReadyTV to launch in 2017 – The Rebellious, Energetic, Adaptive, Determined and Yummy company

Located at the Dominica Towers in New Kingston, the acronym stands for “Rebellious, Energetic, Adaptive, Determined and Yummy”, already has board of directors as follows:

1.      Chairman Peter Reid

2.      President and CEO Christopher Dehring

3.      David Cassanova

4.      Orville Burrell (Shaggy)

5.      Gerard Borely

6.      Magnus Johansson

This appears to be an International effort, as Borely, former chief financial officer at Cable and Wireless Caribbean is a Trinidadian and Johansson is Swedish. Also, they're using up a lot of local talent to launch their services to quote President and CEO Christopher Dehring: “We have employed over 15 individuals and they are the ones installing this technology, designing and implementing the network. We are uniquely Jamaican, so much so that our vendors are pleased with the outlook”.

They're already begun to raise capital through Mayberry, an investment company in Jamaica as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Digital Interactive Services READYTV Revolution is Cable TV for all Jamaicans”.

They also following through with a ‘5 in 4’ growth projections i.e. 5% of GDP (gross domestic product) growth in four (4) as noted in the article “Dehring says Ready TV is in keeping with ‘5 in 4’ growth plan”, published Friday, November 18, 2016 by Balford Henry, The Jamaica Observer.   

ReadyTV is Wireless HDTV - FLOW, Digicel, CVMTV and Television Jamaica in their Crosshairs

They've already erected one (1) of some planned eighteen (18) DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) Broadcast towers.

Their plan is dead simple; broadcast in HDTV and sell Wireless Set top boxes for customer to access their Cable Services to quote Christopher Dehring, quote: “This is the first digital broadcast tower in the country and we are aiming to have at least 18 across the island. With this technology, we will join other Caribbean islands, including Haiti and Trinidad, and other countries in Latin America, Europe and the United States that already have a digital broadcast network”.

The tower's transmission power is really strong, as it covers Zone One, which according to ReadyTV, covers the following areas:

1.      Kingston and St Andrew

2.      St Catherine

3.      Clarendon

4.      St Mary

Thus, Cable TV in the future will not only be cheaper, due to the lack of Fiber Optic and Coaxial Cable runs and may even have loads of local programming as I'd predicted in my blog article entitled “How DISL ReadyTV set to deliver Wireless Cable TV with paid Local Jamaican Reality TV Content”. 

Meanwhile the local Broadcasters in Jamaica, CVM TV and Television Jamaica, which is owned by the RJR Communications group, are planning to implement DSO (Digital Switch Over) and go HDTV in 2017 as noted in my blog article entitled “Why the Broadcasting Commission says Digital Switch Over coming to Jamaica in 2018”.

ReadyTV getting Ready to take on Jamaica – Competition sure to come with DSO in 2018

ReadyTV is taking advantage of their lead, as they anticipate that when DSO does occur in 2018, they'll be facing a lot of competition to quote Christopher Dehring: “Think about all those channels that that are vacant now because we are still using analogue. You would be now creating this incredible economy and industry because you have freed up all of this spectrum for many more entrepreneurs to enter the business”.

DTT is spectrally efficient, with up to 15 HDTV quality broadcasts being able to fit into 1 analog 6GHz NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) channel as pointed out by Christopher Dehring, quote: “It is a totally new efficiency from the perspective of distribution because most of our competition is fixed wire services. Imagine the cost of running fibre around the country. We take a single analogue channel and digitise it, and with that digital transition we are able to broadcast 15 high definition channels from that single analogue channel”.

This translates to also faster to set up and a faster roll out in 2017, with customers merely having to purchase a wireless Set top Box from ReadyTV, to quote Christopher Dehring: “It is cable television when you are ready and it is easy to use. Customers can go into a store, purchase a box and connect it to their television and begin viewing right away. It is wireless with instant connection, so customers do not have to wait weeks to be able to access authorised programming for cable television broadcasting in Jamaica”.

Suddenly, I see visions of Executives at FLOW, Digicel, CVMTV and Television Jamaica looking very worried, as if this catches on, 2018, may be too late for them!