Nearly a full year after splashing out a contract worth US$30 million or J$2.1 billion to mobile technology giant, Sony Ericsson, LIME Jamaica is about to hit Jamaica with mobile broadband, having made sufficient progress on its high-speed, multi-capability 3G network, which is still being built.

But LIME is more than half a year behind on this plan, having said last year it would have deployed mobile broadband last November.

Tight-lipped

On the face of it, LIME has been beaten by Claro Jamaica, which has been touting the roll-out of its 3G network for at least three weeks.

Claro, however, has not been willing to say exactly what its network can deliver, despite several requests for interviews.

Digicel, too, has chosen to remain tight-lipped about its roll-out of the even more superior 4G or WiMAX technology.

As he spoke this week of LIME's coming 3G system, to be rolled out on a phased basis starting in the Greater Kingston area, Geoff Houston, the mobile company's Jamaica boss, appeared unperturbed by the stiff competition.

The Sony Ericsson deal came on the heels of a cleansing by the company, which took a serious look at its old mobile network and threw it out, writing off $5 billion in the process.

Houston maintained that the investment was being made out of LIME's recognition that there is room for growth in the Jamaican market. The investment also reflected the company's long-term plan in this market.

"Jamaica is the cornerstone of our Caribbean strategy. Without a successful Jamaica, it means we are not firing on all cylinders across the region. So we are not just looking at the short term, but also at the long term," Houston said.

LIME's upgrade is part of a three to five-year transformation plan for Jamaica that was first announced by Houston's predecessor, Phil Green.

Alongside the total write-off of the mobile infrastructure, Green promised a revised product and services, a refreshed customer-service model, and an expanded sales network for mobile services.

Houston said last Wednesday that the company is also to spend an additional US$5 million to revamp its DSL broadband network for Internet subscribers by September.

According to Houston, "Customers in certain areas will begin to see significant improvement in the quality of their service and certainly by the end of September, that will be completed, putting Jamaica on a footing with other world-class centres."

Ericsson's role

Ericsson's role has been to supply the technology, deploying its mobile network solutions and platforms to integrate mobile and entertainment capabilities for LIME.

The new technology, according to LIME, will provide mobile users with cutting-edge services, such as video conferencing, multimedia emails, faster transfer of files and video streaming, among other goodies fast becoming the norm in the techno-age.

The mobile network will operate much like broadband Internet, offering high-speed transmission up to 14 megabytes per second.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com