CABLE & WIRELESS Jamaica is aggressively expanding and upgrading its data and IP network improved capacity, a higher standard of performance and reliability.
The company said its network will deliver best-in-class performance and will use the latest available Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology. Already, C&WJ has spent $120-million to implement a core ATM network with ATM switches already installed and functional in Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, and the Corporate Area.
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A third ATM switch is currently being installed in the Corporate Area and Spanish Town and Mandeville are seeing similar activity. The company plans to commission another 15 ATM nodes across the island during the next financial year.
Senior vice-president of Carriers Services Gary Barrow said: "We are aware of the changing market needs and we have designed a network that will support the range of products and services that will meet these needs. We plan to continue to expand and develop this network and will be spending another $1-billion on its expansion next financial year.
"The pace of change and opportunities require new skills and new approaches and we are assiduously working to meeting this challenge."
The convergence of technologies and transformation to a data-centric network will allow C&WJ to become a provider of integrated services at far larger bandwidth than customers can get now. This should help facilitate multimedia services, video on demand, and other value-added bandwidth services.
The telecoms provider, which should face competition from wireless providers Centennial and Mossel Jamaica in the new year, has also invested some $60 million in bolstering its Internet network. To date new access servers have been installed at Carlton (Kingston), Braeton, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Central (Kingston).
The Ocho Rios and Central servers - the most recently commissioned - use sophisticated SS7 technology to deliver features such as calling line identification and enhanced surveillance, which will help Internet customer service representatives to provide faster and more personalised assistance to customers, in the event they experience difficulties with their service.
C&WJ is in the final stages of commissioning and testing an aggregated IP node that is connected to Cable & Wireless Global IP network, which will be among the most advanced IP infrastructure in the world. This will provide Jamaica with access to the latest available global products and services.
Meanwhile, international transmission facilities have also been expanded with the recent commissioning of Maya -1, a new submarine fibre system. Maya-1 was commissioned on October 30 and gives the island a third route for telecommunications traffic with the United States as well as countries in Central and South America.
The telecoms giant's stake in this system is $300-million. C&WJ has now completed its submarine fibre optic transmission ring around the island, and after testing, this system should be commissioned before the end of this financial year. These enhancements will provide Jamaica with one of the most resilient, and highest capacity backbone infrastructure in the region.
To manage this integrated network Cable & Wireless Jamaica has also invested in a state-of-the-art network management system and established a central network operations centre (NOC). This unified management approach will give C&WJ the ability to monitor and manage its entire network from a single location improving both its performance and reliability.
This article was supplied by Cable & Wireless Jamaica.
