Digicel Jamaica today announced additional details about its Digicel Broadband service, which will deliver easy-to-access wireless broadband internet services at never before seen speeds to users across the country – offering Digicel customers the best value in the wireless broadband market.
Digicel has appointed China’s ZTE Corp. as its second WiMAX vendor to provide a full turn-key solution for phase one of its 2.5GHz Mobile WiMAX solution. Under the agreement, ZTE will install a nationwide, high-speed, high capacity 4G network across all 14 Parishes of Jamaica, covering 60% of the population at launch. This is part of an initial investment of US$22.7 million dollar (J$ 2 billion) investment by Digicel.
ZTE will deploy the network rollout plan which includes the WiMAX network planning and design; equipment supply; customer premise devices such as modems, USBs; engineering installation services; and WiMAX network optimization.
“We are delighted to be building the country’s first nationwide WiMAX network in partnership with ZTE. Its leading product solutions and world-class technology experts will help us ensure that Digicel Broadband provides the best coverage, the best value and the best service in the wireless broadband market in Jamaica,” said Mark Linehan, Digicel Jamaica CEO.
“The launch of the WiMAX network will bring a much needed nationwide high-speed & high capacity voice, video and data wireless broadband network built for the 21st century, which will allow large and small businesses – as well as individuals – to compete in the global economy,” added Linehan.
Mr. Wu Zengqi, SVP, ZTE Corporation, said: “Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone for our WiMAX products. We are the market leader in the development and deployment of WiMAX across the world and we are delighted to be partnering with Digicel to roll out a state-of-the-art 4G wireless broadband network in Jamaica.”
Set to launch in 2010, the Digicel Broadband service will be true ‘plug ‘n play’ as users will be able to plug in a simple small wireless device to their computers (laptops or PCs) or other internet-ready devices and they will be connected to the world wide web.
