Phil Green (left), president of Cable and Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ), shakes hands with Bjern Welmer, general manager of Ericsson Panama, to seal a $2 billion deal for the deployment of C&WJ's 3G Mobile Network, at C&WJ's head office, Carlton Crescent, Kingston, Wednesday.

Aiming for a 'transformation' of its mobile market, Cable and Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ) has sealed a US$30 million (J$2.1 billion) deal with Ericsson to expand its network and upgrade to 3G technology capable of deploying a wider range of broadband services, and at faster speeds.

The project is already under way, C&WJ announced Wednesday at the contract signing.

President and CEO Phil Green said the company would spend three years building out the technology.

Ericsson was chosen for the job, Green said, because its 3G technology has the highest speed in the world.

'Most modern' network

The company is already positioning the network to be created as "the most modern" in this market.

Green expects to grow the company's mobile market share by 15 per cent within two years of service deployment.

The company currently has about 660,000 mobile customers, placing it a distant second to Digicel Jamaica with 1.9 million subscribers.

"We are delighted to bring 3G technology to our business and residential customers," Green told journalists at a press conference recently held at the company's Carlton Crescent head office in Kingston.

"It will transform our mobile business over the next one, two, three years."

Niklas Heuveldop, president for Ericsson Central America and Caribbean, was similarly "delighted and proud to have been selected as a strategic technology partner by Cable and Wireless in Jamaica," he said at the signing.

Ericsson role

Ericsson will supply the technology, deploying its Mobile Softswitch and Mobile Packet Backbone Network solutions and its Multi Mediation platform - and play the role of systems integrator.

Over the first phase of the project, from June to February, C&WJ will erect 100 cell sites across the island, half of which have already been approved by planning authorities.

Service is to be rolled out in phases, confined initially to Kingston, St Catherine and St Thomas.

"We will launch it in Kingston before the end of the year," said C&WJ's senior vice-president Network Planning and Operations, Rick Hall.

Second-phase penetration

The company plans to penetrate the north coast and Montego Bay in its second phase.

ThreeG offers features such as enhanced multimedia or multimedia content to mobile devices, including phones, PDAs and laptops; video conferencing; TV streaming; and large emails, and high-speed transmission up to 14 megabytes per second.

Green said the system being built out by Ericsson would replace the "slow, chunky access" that customers now experience to "a very high speed access" to the Internet.

The technology also allows for multiple tasks to be carried out simultaneously, enabling users to perform concurrent functions.

Mobile subscribers will be able to make a phone call while surfing the Internet or downloading an MP3 file.

2g, 3g sales

Of the increased competition already provided by American Movil's MiPhone and Digicel Jamaica, Green explained, "We are more focussed on our customers. 3G is adapted by all the major carriers." He said 30 to 50 per cent of all the company's new sales would likely emanate from its 2G and 3G services.

As for what customers would pay for the upgraded services, Green said the company, which he claimed had prices 40 per cent cheaper than other mobile carriers, was keeping its prices at a minimal cost.

The Ericsson handsets, said Green, ranged from US$20 to US$400.

"With 3G there are a lot of services customers can subscribe to," he said.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com