JAMAICANS have reaped remarkable benefits from the competitive t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s environment since 2001 and are currently witnessing the same players squaring off in the arena of internet, cable TV, landline, and cellular (collectively referred to as “broadband” services).

As in the past, big savings are already coming our way, but is this too little too late? A look at the technologies used and the services offered could assist in making a choice between these companies. The two major landlinebased technologies currently in use are Fibre To The Home (FTTH) and Hybrid Fibre- Coaxial (HFC).

FTTH is selfexplanatory. HFC has been in use since about 1990 and uses fibre as trunk lines and coaxial lines branching off to the homes. Fibre uses infrared light and can carry far more data than copper cables, which use microwaves. The objective of both methods is to provide capacity (or bandwidth) for the transportation of the services.

The familiar terms “AM and FM” are analog transmission processes. Digital communications (where the information is encoded into ones and zeroes) is the modern and more efficient way and has the inherent advantage of less interference and loss, but without compression and other techniques would occupy the same bandwidth as analog.

It is the codecs (video translation software) and encoding/decoding techniques that can make a difference to video and audio quality and reduction in bandwidth. Digital compression techniques, for the same content, can use one-tenth of the bandwidth compared to an analog transmission.

The headend of a cable system is the location where the signals originate. It can receive signals from programme suppliers via satellite, wireless, undersea cable or landlines for retransmission to the home. Satellite signals may experience more interference than cables, and any signal failure or interference from the supplier is passed to the home, whether transmitted by HFC or FTTH.

If a programme supplier receives an HD signal but has only SD transmission systems, that entity downconverts the HD signal to SD and this can result in low SD standards. The headend can do nothing about this and can only pass on what it receives. DSL (Digital subscriber line) runs data over telephone lines and has significantly less capacity than HFC.

Although fibre has 100,000 times the bandwidth of coaxial cable and exhibits less loss in signal strength and quality, a well engineered HFC system can deliver the same content as offered by FTTH.

Telephone service is subject to international bandwidth standards, so neither FTTH nor HFC intrinsically improves clarity. In the future, new bandwidth-hungry applications may give FTTH an advantage. Therefore, with present content and assuming best engineering practice, the way to compare providers is analysis of cost, content and services.

Cost comparison is simple for internet — the higher the speed in MBps (mega-bits per second), the better. For telephone service the cost is generally straightforward, but be certain to know how the provider defines terms such as overseas calls and anywhere minutes.

Find out the maximum number of lines allowed to the home and whether call waiting, conferencing and call forwarding are offered. A big feature is “bundling”. Do the providers offer bigger discounts if you take all the services from them? Both Claro and Tigo Star, the big players in Central and South America, combine cellular with TV, internet and landline phone to offer savings.

Would the mobile features include using the phone as a credit card and cheque lodgement by phone photo? Included in cost comparison would be any offer of discount for ontime payments, penalty for late payments and ability to save time (and money) by paying on line.

The complicated analysis is the assessment of the content and starts with a determination of the number of audio and video channels. Note how many are HD and how many are SD. HD signals offer far more clarity than the SD — particularly on larger screens and especially for sports.

Nowadays virtually all TVs on sale are HD anyway. How is HD accessed? Is it a premium service and do you need to purchase special equipment to see it? Do you buy or rent the set top box? In a rapidly changing technological environment it may be better to rent a box and not be left holding obsolete equipment.

If you must own the box do you pay insurance? Is there a limit to the number of set top boxes allowed in a home? Is the channel package offered what you want, and can you add channels individually or are you forced to buy another smaller package of several channels to get the one you want?

Are sports packages offered singly or in packages? Can you add and remove channels by phone call? And of course, a big issue, does the contract allow the provider to change multiple channels without compensation to the home? Carried to the reductio ad absurdum, such an arrangement could mean that all channels could be removed and you are still obliged to pay.

What cable TV features are offered? Are the boxes DVR (digital video recorder) which permit you to pause, record and go backward with live TV? How far back in time can you go? Can you come home at 10pm and still get the 7pm news? How many hours of recordings can you store?

The issues regarding service are how long it takes to lodge a complaint and how long to effect a repair. The question to ask is whether the call centre is local and therefore aware of local conditions. Also, one could try to call the providers’ call centre and see how long it takes to get an answer.

In addition, a subscriber could observe the length of the lines at the local outlets. At the recently concluded 2015 World Championships, the British commentator, in speaking about the 4 x 100 men’s heats, announced that Jamaica did an excellent time although “you know who” was not in that heat.

Taking a cue, we can say that the competitors for the Digital Cable Finals are in the set position and “you know who” IS in the race!

Robert Evans is an engineer.