By Susan Smith, Staff ReporterMIPHONE IS pushing into the far corners of the island. The company wants to make its services accessible to more than 90 per cent of the market by December 2004, says Mr. Courtney Grant, director of engineering for MiPhone.
Currently, it has a customer base of 80,000 subscribers. There are plans to install additional cellular sites in the eastern and northern regions of the island and increase its current number from 57 to 60.
The expansion should take place in Yallahs, St. Thomas, Portland, Brown's Town, St. Ann and parts of Hanover and St. Elizabeth.
In addition, MiPhone plans to deploy more cellular sites on wheels to facilitate faster service responses for its customer.
The expansion will be funded from the US$30 million loan granted them by the Investment Development Bank informed Mr. Alex Hill, chief marketing officer for MiPhone at a press briefing held yesterday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.
Mr. Hill told the journalists that the number of MiPhone sites erected may seem small in comparison to its competitors but the superiority of its technology makes up for the numbers. The company says its GDMA technology is between four and six times more powerful than that used by its competitors.
"GDMA's coverage and capacity potential is higher than other mobile technologies and affords the operators to use fewer cell sites to service a community," he explained. "Fewer cell sites translate into lower operating costs and are passed on to customers as lower rates." he added.
MiPhone also plans to increase its distribution outlets by ten per cent for the rest of this year said Nathalie Norman, dealer channel manager for MiPhone. Their primary dealers number between 75 and 100. Senior Vice President for Miphone, David Palmer, says Miphone's presence in the Jamaican market is intended to bring greater choice to the Jamaican people. Alex Hill explicitly puts it "Duopoly is not better than monopoly." To balance its efforts, the company has developed a number of corporate strategies to secure a part of the mobile market. One of the major strategies is to create a niche market of professionals. "MiPhone wants to develop a clean fun respectable image more targeted to our professionals," said Mr. Hill.
