Courtney Jackson

Almost two years after it began offering landline telephone service to Jamaicans, Gotel Communications has been able to capture a mere one per cent of the market, the company apparently hamstrung by high equipment costs and lack of bandwidth.

"Sometimes it is a matter of financing, if you do not have the money to roll you cannot," said Courtney Jackson, deputy director-general of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), the regulatory body for the industry.

The more bandwidth a company has, the greater the number of subscribers that can be accommodated on the network at any given time.

"They have about three and five thousand subscribers," said Jackson, noting that the estimate was based on telephone traffic supplied by Gotel to the OUR.

The $2.5-billion worth of telecommunications equipment that Gotel reportedly secured in 2002, was apparently insufficient to sustain its network. When contacted, Gotel would not comment on its subscriber numbers or on its financing.

However, the company is apparently preparing to upgrade its system in a bid to address the bandwidth constraints. Customers will no longer be fitted with small square dishes; rather, they will get a small house device to connect to the Internet and to make calls.

Since 2002, Gotel has been offering its services commercially in a test phase. Its launch has been pending for over two years. Yesterday, a company executive said "it would launch sometime this year".

Twenty-eight companies are licensed to offer land-line service, including the biggest cell provider, Digicel Jamaica Ltd. Gotel, however, is the only one operational.

Almost a year ago, C&W increased local rates by a combined 100 per cent over the course of 11 months. The increase apparently contributed to the loss of 50,000 landline subscribers - most of whom substituted cell phones for their land-based lines. Gotel did not increase its rates. It was not known whether Gotel was aided or hurt by C&W's increase.

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