My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: How Jerome Campbell's ArrowEX CodeApp App makes 10 Digit dialling transition easy

Saturday, June 23, 2018

How Jerome Campbell's ArrowEX CodeApp App makes 10 Digit dialling transition easy


“I quickly realized that this was an opportunity, because to change out the numbers manually would be tedious. So, CodeApp was a pre-emptied solution to the problem. There are other international apps out there but I still wanted to put my app in the game”

Jerome Campbell, 31-y-o developer and app designer for the CodeApp

The date for the transition to 10 digit dialing came and went without much fanfare in Jamaica.

 10 Digit dialing took effect on Thursday May 31, 2018 with little or no problems as noted in the article “Mandatory 10-Digit Calling Takes Effect Today”, published Thursday May 31, 2018 by Romario Scott, The Jamaica Gleaner.

This is because the Telecom Providers made sure that whenever anyone made a call without either the 876 or 658 dialing codes, they were told that they had to add those digits in front of the number in order to make the call.

Still, many were caught off guard despite being told about it since last year as reported in my blog article entitled “OUR, NANP 658 area code for Jamaica heralds MVNO Telecoms for Digicel and FLOW”.

Some jamaicans, however, who did not have the time to add the new area codes, turned to the Google Play Store on their smartphones, seeking a solution.

They soon found one brilliant Jamaican software developer Jerome Campbell, who had developed the CodeApp App, which many Jamaicans have since downloaded as reported in the article “‘App-Solutely’ Jamaican - UTech Graduate Creates One Of The Most Popular 10-Digit Converters Available In Google Play Store”, published Sunday June 17, 2018 by Carlene Davis, The Jamaica Gleaner.

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So who is Jerome Campbell? What is 10 Digital dialling? And how does the CodeApp Apphelp?

CodeApp App - 10 Digit dialling App clocks 50,000 downloads

CodeApp App, was developed by a 31-year-old Jamaican information technology specialist and app designer named Jerome Campbell. The app, which is mentioned on his CodeApp Websiteis the second highest rated country code converter in the Google Play Store, clocking in at more than 20,000 downloads and boasting a 4.5 rating out of five.

The CodeApp App is currently available in the Google Play Store in the formats:

1.      Free
2.      Premium

The iPhone version is still in development and will be available by June 30. A very popular app, its clocking in at about 50,000 downloads thus far, making money mainly from Google Adsense, to quote Jerome Campbell: “At the current rate I’m expecting 50,000 downloads by the end of this month, it’s making a bit of money, it’s building”.

For persons thinking that after the numbers are converted the app is useless, Campbell had this to say, quote: “The app has value added features to check data and credit balances, send please call me and please credit me messages and other (quick) codes. Its download size is less than four megabytes”.

This means that the app is a value buy, helping many smartphone owners in Jamaica to switch to 10 digit dialling as heralded in my Geezam blog article entitled “OUR’s 10-Digit Dialling means MVNO and Competition coming to Digicel and FLOW”.

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And no, according to the developer, he's not collecting your data to resell to a third party advertiser, quote: “In this age of scamming and hacking, persons might think that Jamaicans are not tech-savvy, but we are very aware and very cautious, as opposed to other apps, which we don’t know who is behind it, I’m putting my reputation behind this app, so that is a guarantee that I’m not harvesting the contact information”.

Jerome Campbell's CodeApp App –Lecturer ArrowEX, Inc on the Rise

A Lawrence Tavern native who grew up with both of his parents, he was quite an earlier achiever. After having attended Lawrence Tavern Primary and Oberlin High schools, he then went to UTECH (University of Technology) at the age of 15 years old.

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Currently an adjunct lecturer at the VTDI (Vocational Training Development Institute), he teaches Mobile App Development along with other information technology based courses to young students. Thus this company is a quite a feat considering that when he went to UTech, he had no idea what a programmer was, muchless that he could make a career out of it, quote: “When I entered UTech, I didn’t know what a programmer was; I was told there were a lot of jobs working with computers, so my mother encouraged me along that line. Programming came naturally to me and I just began to become good at it.”

Several years later, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from UTech and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of the West Indies. Unable to find a job, he started his company called ArrowEX, Inc which is incorporated in Delaware in the United States.

His company currently has global reach and multinational invests, with all the development being done in Jamaica by Jamaicans. He started the company due to the fact that he was unable to get a job immediately after leaving university.

He began developing apps for himself, with CodeApp App being among the successes among his 20 apps he's developed thus far. So what will he develope next?

Stay tuned as we go through the adjustment to this new paradigm as we'll soon run out of area codes in the next few years!

Here’s the link:

For more information, please contact the:
Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR)
36 Trafalgar Road
Kingston 5
Telephone: 876-968-6053, 1-888-CALL-OUR (2255-687)
Fax: 876-929-3635
Website: http://www.our.org.jm
Email: consumer@our.org.jm

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