CABLE & WIRELESS Jamaica (C&WJ) launched its much-anticipated GSM/GPRS network on Saturday evening, promising customers that the technology would bring to them unparalleled service and the most advanced features of any mobile company in Jamaica.
Thousands of customers and their families watched as 11 pre-selected customers switched on the network during a fun day at Fort Clarence Beach, St. Catherine, amidst a spectacular display of fireworks and dazzling aerial acrobatics performed by pilots and paratroopers from the United States, as well as the Jamaica Defence Force Air Wing, which performed a simulated rescue of an injured fisherman.
The GSM and GPRS network launch at the 'Tek Off' air show, which also featured comedy acts and guest artistes such as the Third World band, was the culmination of weeks of speculation among Jamaicans about an advertisement featuring a symbol looking like a target, but which gave away little until C&WJ, within the past week or so, subtly began revealing that it was about to switch on its new network.
In the interim, C&WJ also ran a series of advertisements featuring comedian Oliver Samuels forewarning that 'di owner fi di yard a come', in direct reference to the incursion into the Jamaican telecommunications market of its main competitor, Digicel. Addressing participants just before the official switch on, Gary Barrow, C&WJ's president, declared that "the owner for the yard is here."
MOST ADVANCED
Mr. Barrow said C&WJ's GSM/GPRS network "is the most advanced in the world", that it would allow customers to access Internet on the go, to get better coverage and the company would be offering the best mobile telephone rates.
In a statement issued ahead of the launch, Mr. Barrow said "there can be no question that ours is the newest and most sophisticated network in Jamaica. It offers our customers unparalleled service capability and the most advanced features."
Noting that C&WJ would have the most flexible service plans in Jamaica, Mr. Barrow said customers would enjoy significant benefits, including a number of new services, coverage expansion and international roaming.
C&WJ said the Global System Mobile (GSM)/General Packet Radio System (GPRS) network provides advanced voice and mobile data services, including e-business type applications and "always on" Internet. In addition, it said the new network will be seamlessly integrated with the company's existing TDMA network. "This will allow C&W to offer its customers an array of new service plans, which fit customers' lifestyles, the flexibility to customise packages and some unbelievably low call rates," the company said.
Customers on the network will also be able to choose from a variety of handsets which, along with the TDMA offerings, will give C&WJ the widest range of handsets offered by any mobile provider, the statement said.
BUYERS BOOKLET
According to a buyers booklet distributed during the network launch, customers seeking to take advantage of the new technology will be able to access new C&WJ mobile handsets, including brands such as Sendo, Siemens, Nokia and Sony Ericsson at sale prices ranging from $1,900 at the entry level to $29,000 at the high end.
C&WJ said some GSM handsets include imbedded cameras, which allow the taking and sending of photographs to similar handsets; full colour screens; polyphonic ring tones and the capability to download additional ones depending on the service plan.
C&WJ said that among the services that will ride on the new network will be wireless web, which is being facilitated by the GPRS technology. GPRS has high-speed data transmission capability and promotes the immediate and future provision of mobile data services such as "always on" Internet access, picture messaging, wireless application protocol that allows browsing the Internet on the handset, polyphonic ring tunes, community messaging, enhanced mobile e-mail, vehicle tracking services, file transfer services, milti-media messaging services, non-premium and premium 'infotainment' services, as well as electronic payment, commerce and banking.
