THE MINISTRY of Industry, Commerce and Technology will be closely monitoring the problems affecting users of Cable and Wireless Jamaica's cellular (mobile) telephone services, and will take appropriate action if they continue.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology, Colin Campbell, gave this undertaking to the House of Representatives when he spoke in the 2001/2002 Sectoral Debate on Tuesday.
"The Ministry has been advised by C&WJ that over the past week-end, Ericsson, the supplier of its mobile equipment, flew in three specialists to assist with identifying the problem with its network. These experts have determined that the source of the problem was a software glitch, which occurred while the company was upgrading its network," Mr. Campbell told the House.
"They have stabilised the network with temporary work and the supplier of the software has been requested to provide a permanent fix in the shortest possible time. The company is optimistic that this should be completed by the end of this week.
"We will be monitoring this situation closely and the Ministry intends to take appropriate action, if the mobile service continues to experience these problems. In the meantime, the company is continuing with its already announced $2 billion expansion of its mobile network. This programme is expected to run until September and is aimed at increasing and expanding capacity and coverage."
Mr. Campbell said that the second cellular service company, Digicel, was having "spectacular success."
He said that after six weeks, over 40,000 cell phones had already been connected and the company now employs 200 persons directly and will employ an additional fifty in coming weeks.
Centennial, the third licensee, should become active in the sector before the end of the year. The company has already bought the FINSAC-owned former Mutual Security Bank/Canadian High Commission building in New Kingston to be used as its head office.
Mr. Campbell also announced that his Ministry will be meeting with C&WJ on June 7, to finalise the company's capital programme for 2001/2002, as it relates to the remainder of the 217,000 telephone lines which formed part of the agreement leading up to the passage of the Telecommunications Act last year.
He said that the company had already installed 102,176 of the lines, but the Government was not satisfied with the geographic spread.
The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) will shortly issue invitations for applications for Phase II licences for domestic carrier, domestic service provider and service provider licences to subscriber television operators to provide internet services, under a Ministerial Direction leading to the liberalisation of the telecommunications industry.
