By Al Edwards, Financial Editor

WHILE HURRICANE Ivan ravaged the country last week, both Cable & Wireless Jamaica's (C&WJ) fixed line and cellular networks stayed on track, allowing members of the public to contact family and friends.

"We learnt a lot from Hurricane Gilbert back in 1988 and were fully prepared this time," C&WJ's communications director, Errol Miller, told Wednesday Business. "We managed to place our fixed line distribution network underground, which placed us in good stead. During Gilbert, flying debris cut many of our cables and there was extreme dislocation. This time around water did get into some lines causing minimal disruption."

Mr. Miller said placing the cables underground was expensive, but he would not be drawn on a precise figure.

"We were heavily criticised for digging up the roads to place subterranean cables, but we have been vindicated," he said. "Before the hurricane, we took all the precautions to ensure that the network would be resilient enough to weather this hurricane. We had large underground fuel storage units to fuel the back-up generators, and in addition we also had batteries in place to back up the back-up generators. This effort has all been about Jamaica and ensuring communications lines were kept clear for most of the time."

REPORTING DAMAGE

Mr. Miller said C&WJ employees worked during the hurricane to ensure that both fixed and wireless networks remained in working condition. He said this meant that damage could be reported promptly, that it was logged in a systematic way, and that restoration work could begin as soon as weather conditions permitted.

Although C&WJ has about 450,000 active landlines, its growth rate in that area has been flat for the last few years. Speaking with the Financial Gleaner last week, C&WJ's senior vice-president for marketing, Patrick Gillings, said: "We want to remind Jamaicans that landline to landline is still the least expensive option for making calls."

To that end, C&WJ has embarked on a $10 million marketing campaign. "The 'Home Fone' campaign is to remind customers of their phone at home. We want to bring back to the fore the residential landline. We have been focusing on the cellular market and now we want to turn our attention back to residential phone customers," added Mr. Gillings.

Addressing the performance of C&WJ's mobile network during Hurricane Ivan, Mr. Miller said, "As you know, our network did not fail Jamaicans at any time during the hurricane. We have built robustness into our network and made especially sure that it is resilient. A significant number of our cell sites had back-up generators, so when the main power supply failed, they kicked in keeping our network operational. It was a tremendous feat and demonstrates that we have invested wisely."

Since 1990, C&WJ has invested over $50 billion in both its cellular and landline network.

Speaking to Wednesday Business earlier this year, C&WJ's chief operation officer, Sean Bryan, said: "We have made an $800 million investment in our mobile division in order to upgrade the capacity of our network. This meant overlaying our current GSM/GPRS 1900 megahertz high frequency system with a lower frequency 850 megahertz signal. We completed 135 overlays ahead of schedule and can now say that we have the best coverage on the island."

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