Camilo Thame, Business Reporter

Digicel Jamaica is making strides in the wireless broadband market, starting with businesses in Kingston, but Jamaica Network Access Point is now hunting a licence and hopes soon to enter the race for market share. - File

Local telecommunications firm Jamaica Network Access Point (JNAP) is going after one of two wireless broadband licences that the Government has been trying to sell over the last two months, despite hiccups in its initial bid.

The licence, if approved, will allow the local entity to compete directly with Digicel, which is already offering its services to businesses in Kingston, in the wireless market.

Both JNAP and Digicel are part of a 72-member fibre optic cable consortium called Trans-Caribbean Cable Company (TCCC).

JNAP chief executive, Dean Panton, confirmed that the local telecom - which also offers services as a colocation point to connect other companies servers to the internet - put in its application to the regulatory authority, Spectrum Management Authority (SMA), when it opened up to bidders last week, but declined to give details of his company's market plans.

SMA executive director Ernest Smith did not comment on who had applied, but said there was only a single applicant for the licence, and that the applicant was the only bidder back in mid-August when the licence was first to be sold.

"I have received one formal application from an existing telecom operator and one expression of interest," said Smith. "It was the late bid that came back in."

Smith had earlier commented that the bidder had submit a late tender in August and that the Contractor General had then instructed the SMA to "return the application."

But Panton, who is refuting the claim that JNAP was late, say he is reviewing how to proceed to set the record straight.

The auction was first opened on June 20 with an initial deadline for July 19, but the Government agency extended the deadline by a month to August 18, to accommodate interested parties.

The SMA is now taking a "first come, first served" approach to the new bids.

The two licences - for "metropolitan areas only" incorporating Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine, as well as St Ann and St James; and "rural areas only" which takes in the other nine parishes - allows for the maximum purchase by any one applicant of 2x25 MHz (or 50 MHz in all) on the spectrum.

The total available for sale is 2X60 MHz.

"We have resorted to standard licensing procedure," Smith told Sunday Business.

Earlier this year, the Government awarded a licence to Digicel to offer broadband services in the 3.5 GHz band, for which the mobile provider will pay $17.5 million annually for spectrum licence and regulatory fees.

Offer services locally

Currently, Cable and Wireless Jamaica and wireless fixed line operator, Gotel, utilise the frequency band to offer services locally.

According to Digicel Jamaica's chief customer relations director, Harry Smith, the mobile operator launched wireless broadband services in the Corporate Area for "the business market"and expects to enter other major business centres across the island shortly.

"WiMax is currently offering the business community greater choice; it is not just about speed," Digicel's Smith said. "The service is currently offered at speeds up to 3 Mbs."

Sources say that Digicel hopes to start offering residential service by next May, around the same time TCCC will land its underwater fibre optic cable connecting Jamaica to the US.

The 3.5 GHz band refers to the range of frequencies from 3400 to 3700 MegaHertz.

Typically, manufacturers of radio systems within this band utilise 3400-3500 MHz for uplinks, and 3500-3600 MHz for downlinks.

camilo.thame@gleanerjm.com