Jamaicans have become used to China as a major trading and infrastructural development partner. But leading telecommunications company Huawei’s partnership with Digicel has added service technology and probably sports promotion to the list.

There is evidence that it will be easier for Jamaicans to absorb Huawei’s technology service intervention more easily than China’s invasion of our food and fashion culture, with the emerging presence of idolised Argentine football star, Lionel Messi, as Huawei’s global brand ambassador since March.

Jamaicans have now been drawn to China’s vast telecommunications experience through Huawei’s local partnership in Digicel Play, Digicel’s cable TV, broadband and home phone arm, operating in four countries across the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific. Then there is Messi, whose huge global presence hovers over its technological landscape like a recreational backdrop.

“What you find is that the relationship between us and Huawei has moved from being just a phone manufacturer supplier for Digicel, to being now one of the major players in the Digicel Play roll-out,” says Digicel’s head of public relations, Elon Parkinson.

He confirmed that Digicel has been relying on Huawei’s technology for the roll-out of the Digicel Play network across the Caribbean.

“So that the equipment that Digicel Play customers use and the WiFi that is available to us, Huawei built it,” he added.

In the past, Digicel had depended on Ericsson’s technology. However, with Ericsson now focusing on building and maintaining networks, with Huawei building and maintaining networks, in addition to manufacturing the devices needed to utilise them, Digicel has made the switch.

Huawei and Digicel agree that the partnership has worked “pretty well” for both of them, as customers like Huawei’s user friendly designs and other features.

Digicel Group and Huawei Technologies have successfully showcased the power of the fibre-to-home network, by deploying a technology known as XG-PON on the new fibre network, which delivers speeds of up to 10,000Mbps.

XG-PON, which stands for “10Gbps Passive Optical Network”, creates a new era in Ultra-Broadband speeds, never before seen in the Caribbean region.

Following a test conducted in Digicel’s lab in downtown Kingston, recently, using Digicel’s new fibre to the home network, these speeds bring Jamaica in line with global leaders like Korea and Singapore in terms of broadband speeds.

“With the direct correlation between broadband penetration and increased GDP widely accepted, this will help attract inward direct investment and promote economic growth,” says CEO of Digicel Play Caribbean and Central America, John Suranyi.

“Together, Digicel and Huawei have done something incredible in this test. Using Digicel’s skills and experience in telecommunications and Huawei Technologies Multi-Service Single FAN platform, we have, for the first time, brought multi-gigabit speeds to the Caribbean. This is a huge achievement and a very proud day for both organisations. Our partnership goes from strength to strength and we are very excited about what the future holds,” says Huawei Technologies Caribbean Office CEO, Stephen Ma.

Digicel is a total communications and entertainment provider with operations in 33 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific. After 15 years of operation, total investment to date stands at over US$5 billion worldwide.

Digicel is also one of the main sponsors of Caribbean, Central American and Pacific sports teams, including the Special Olympics teams throughout these regions, and the West Indies cricket team and is also the presenting partner of the Caribbean Premier League.

Huawei’s CEO for Consumer Business in Latin America Tyrone Liu says that his company shares a similar belief in the power of sports as an attraction for its customers.

“Huawei believes that sports is a great way in which people enrich their lives and that is why our commitment towards sports in general, and football in particular, is so strong,” said Liu.

The consensus seems to be emerging therefore that this partnership between Digicel and Huawei could be a major game changer for both telecommunications technology and sports in Jamaica, and the rest of the Caribbean.