The new Digicel home phone.

Mobile provider Digicel, in an obvious move to grab market share from arch rival Cable & Wireless, has introduced a home fixed line service which it says offers the convenience of a cellular phone with the ability to pick up calls in areas with low signal strength.

The Irish-owned firm strategically rolled out the new phone at last weekend's Denbigh Agricultural show in Clarendon, which is normally attended by hundreds of Jamaicans living in rural Jamaica.

"It's a convenient alternative to the landline," said Digicel's communication and marketing executive, Patria-Kaye Aarons. "It is a fixed line that looks like your general landline at your home, but gives you the convenience of both a cellphone and the landline all in one."

The phone, said Aarons, can be used to send text messages and has been introduced in response to requests from customers who either have no landlines or have problems receiving signals on their cell phones.

"Customers have been asking for it. there are a lot of persons in rural Jamaica who still don't have cell coverage or they don't have land lines at all; so we sat down with our team and we actually decided to offer a Digicel at home service," Aarons told the Business Observer.

"Maybe you live in a valley; with the instrument, when you put it down, the reach of it is far stronger than an actual cellphone," she said. "It's because of the way it's built, it's stationary and it's a bigger instrument so it can take in a stronger signal, so the range of it is wider, if you make a call with it, it's absolutely crisp and clear."

Aarons did not give figures but claimed that sales of the instrument had been going well at Denbigh.

"I can't believe how the sales have been going," she said, admitting that Digicel chose to introduce the phone at the farm show because of the number of farmers who attended.

"There was a time when the farmer went out and no one knew what was happening to him until he came home," she said. "Now, this is another way for them to communicate from their homes."

She said the company, in another month, would use a series of roadshows to promote the phone, particularly in communities that have no landlines.

"After that, it will be available in Digicel and electronic stores around the island," Aarons said, adding that customers will be able to choose between post-paid and pre-paid services.

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