Work being undertaken on Oceanic Digital Jamaica's Greater Portmore cell site. - Contributed OCEANIC DIGITAL Jamaica (ODJ), the new owner of Centennial Jamaica Limited, is on target with the expansion of its network operations to provide coverage of its mobile service across the island.
The company has recently undergone construction and erection of one of its six additional sites in the Greater Portmore area.
With testing presently taking place with the new site, consumers in Portmore, Hellshire, along the Causeway and Mandela Highway, within the next seven days should have crisp and clear service in these areas.
Mr. Courtney Grant, Director of Engineering at ODJ, said the continuing build-out of the additional five sites will cover the South Coast to include May Pen and Mandeville and another 45 by the middle of 2003 to cover the North Coast which includes the Bog Walk Gorge, Ewarton, Linstead, Negril, Montego Bay and as far as, Falmouth Lucea and Savanna-la-Mar.
"We have most of the equipment needed to complete the sites to provide islandwide coverage," said Mr. Grant.
Mr. Eddie Powell, ODJ's Vice President of Marketing and Sales, said the company already has a customer base of about 30,000 and they expect to increase this gradually as the company expands its state-of-the-art CDMA cellular network and reorganise its sales distribution.
The company's expansion plans will also include new services including messaging and informational services, high speed data and internet access.
The company uses is confident of its leadership in the mobile service market as its cellular network is based on the newest and most advanced cellular technology - Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Oceanic claims that this technology is of a higher standard than other cellular technologies in its ability to provide service to more customers with less cell sites.
COMPETITIVE
CELLULAR PRODUCT
The company presently has on the market, a "Talk Time" prepaid service plan, whereby the phone is pre-programmed with usage time already built in. Under this plan, for a service package price of $1,995, the customer gets the equivalent of $1,995 worth of minutes to make calls anywhere in Jamaica or overseas, plus the cellular phone at no extra cost. The phone is entirely free. When the pre-programmes minutes has been used up, then consumers must purchase phone cards to continue usage of the phone to make calls.
The product is being marketed under the name "MiPHONE Fast" and the service packages are available at Lotto outlets islandwide and at dealer outlets such as Clear Voice Jamaica, Noatech Digital as well as pharmacies and stores.
Oceanic Digital Communications (ODC), the U.S. based company which acquired the Centennial and Lucent interests, has been in operation since 1997, providing technologically advanced integrated communication services to under-served markets in the Caribbean and Latin American region.
In addition to Jamaica, Oceanic Digital has mobile wireless licences and/or operations in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, the Netherlands Antilles Islands of St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire, the French West Indies islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin and St. Barts. In the Commonwealth of Dominica, the company is an Internet Service Provider and offers wireless, cable and wireless local and long distance service.
The new company name, Oceanic Digital Jamaica Limited, will be completely phased in during 2003 with the appropriate branding of its products and services.
