CELLULAR service provider MiPhone now boasts coverage in 14 parishes, according to Chief Marketing Officer Alex Hill, and its customer base has now grown to 87,000 talkers. Hill said, however, that the company was still to enhance and upgrade service in these parishes throughout the year, adding that work is already underway in some of these areas.

Full coverage was achieved last December.
Additional services will be added to Portland, Clarendon, St Thomas and Westmoreland.

Speaking at the promotional launch of the MiWorld and MiRewards pre-paid calling plans, the CMO said that aside from the geographical improvements, MiPhone would be shifting focus to strengthen the quality of the services across the island.

MiPhone's CDMA network carries a strong signal.
Said Hill: "Our established call rate, which is the percentage of calls that are established on the first try, is 98.67 per cent and the drop call percentage is 1.77 per cent."

"It shows that the network itself is a very high network. The clarity and quality that people experience truly is a difference that MiPhone has... We hope to keep moving the medium of the established call rate to a higher percentage and the drop call rate lowered," he said.

MiPhone chief executive Craig Burnette said this year the company will also be concentrating on providing more calling plans for customers, as well as zone in on niche markets.

"You are going to see more plans like the MiBiz success replicated throughout our portfolio of products. We are going to pay attention to different segments of the markets that never got paid attention to before," he said.

"This is the theme we hope will resonate throughout the year - that we are going to start customising things to fit individual user requirements and needs."

He named some of the unserved areas as small and medium size businesses, as well as communities, families, churches and industries.
In addition to cellphones, the company will also be looking at selling wireless landline services, as well as Internet access.

"We now have the launch pad. We now have the technology in place to start bringing very new and exciting applications and services built on this foundation to you," said Burnette.

With over 87,000 active subscribers, the 18-month-old cellular company attributes its growth to the products and services that are provided for target groups.

MiPhone says it is yet to generate a profit on its activities, but projects that this will start to change in a matter of months.

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