By Andrew Green, Staff ReporterCENTENNIAL DIGITAL Jamaica was slow off the mark in establishing its cellular service, and few Jamaicans understand how its service differs from that of the top two competitors.
Its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology is what makes Centennial different from Digicel, which uses GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), and Cable & Wireless, using GSM as well as TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) technology.
Selecting the best cellular carrier is no easy task, given the range of equipment, rate plans and technologies available. But an Internet search by Wednes-day Business suggested that CDMA technology offered by Oceanic does offer some distinct advantages. "The best cellular technology is CDMA," said Craig McBurnett, the Oceanic chief executive officer. "It is the best for delivering the service you need."
With CDMA, conversations are coded, and then unscrambled by the time it reaches the receiver. This means CDMA systems increase call quality.
CDMA phones are geared to work at lower power levels, increasing your chance of receiving a call even if the signals are weak, as is the case within buildings. The technology works particularly well in densely populated urban areas where network congestion is an issue.
"It is by far the most environmentally sensitive technology," Mr. McBurnett said. "We don't want to litter the island with too many towers. That is not the right approach."
The technology requires fewer cell sites to provide coverage a given area than GSM. But the towers need to be taller than their GSM counterparts. "We were among the first to initiate co-location in the island with Digicel," the chief executive said. Digicel and Oceanic now share several sites and they plan to expand this collaboration where possible.
CERTAIN LIMITS
"We want to be judicious about how we introduce this technology and sensitive to the communities and the society we impact," he said. But because the technologies are different, there are limits to the amount of co-location that is possible.
"Typically the restrictions are the height of the tower, how many radios the tower will support, how many other radios are already there, how difficult it is to access that cell site from your other cell sites," he said. "It is physical and technical issues that are the biggest drivers which determine where you can co-locate and where you can't."
Oceanic offers a highly sophisticated, environmentally friendly technology, which the company claims to provide at the lowest cost in the island. The concern for potential users is the size of the network.
The company had 70,000 customers at the start of the year, based mainly around Kingston and the south coast. They only recently opened offices in Ocho Rios and turned on their network across the north coast.
Their service is now available 'substantially' islandwide, Mr. McBurnett said. "We will continue to expand that reach as we build on the east and west extremes of the island and in the centre of the island."
Customers have the option of that Oceanic system, or Cable & Wireless and Digicel, which both have cell phone systems with more than 500,000 customers islandwide.
