LIME last week launched Next Generation Network (NGN)-enabled services in St Vincent and the Grenadines, which allows every fixed line customer in the country to self-activate broadband.

It took LIME four years and US$8 million to deploy the network throughout the Leeward isle.

NGN is based on the Internet Protocol (IP) backbone and is transported over fibre optics and microwave, and include upgrades to existing copper lines to deliver broadband voice over IP (VoIP), broadband data and the ability to provide IP television (IPTV) to every fixed line customer.

The now-retired ‘System X’ equipment – a fully digital switch – was installed 25 years ago and operated in the conventional manner with the company’s engineers and technicians being an integral part of the provisioning exercise for all services.

‘System X’ served just over 23,000 fixed line customers. Today, the NGN with full convergence available to all can accommodate over 25,000 customers.

The company contracted the Chinese company ‘Huawei’ and the US-based company ‘Sonus Networks’ as the network equipment suppliers and employed its own LIME staff to do the network design, integration and project management

LIME general manager Angus Steele commented: “Our ability to provide broadband services to any fixed line customer in just a few minutes is a tremendous improvement to our service delivery. Added to that, our bandwidth in St Vincent and also in the Grenadine islands has been tripled, which will be of significant benefit to all our customers. And of course, this improvement also paves the way for the overall introduction of the “E” in LIME with a new portfolio of products and services.

“With the ICT drive by Government to get broadband access into every home as a priority, The Next Generation Network (NGN) build out has paved the way for this to happen, as it offers Universal Broadband access, increased Bandwidth and Network resiliency, and LIME is at the forefront as the main facilitator. By this investment, LIME is expressing confidence in the growth and development potential of the people and country of St Vincent and the Grenadines.”

Chief Operations Officer David Crawford expressed the view that the NGN programme is a great demonstration of two of LIME’s core values — innovation and delivery.