JUST under two years after it was granted a licence to provide wireless subscriber television service, N5 Systems Ltd says it will have a soft launch of the service in the Corporate Area and Portmore this weekend.

“We will have soft launch at the end of March and we will be running with friendly customers on the system,” N5’s chief operating officer, Barrington Raglan, told the Observer last week. “At the end of April, there will be an official launch,” he added.

N5 Systems started operations in July 1995, providing an Internet Access Service. Soon after, it applied for and received a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) system licence — technology that was not very popular in Jamaica at the time.

However, in May 2000, the little-known firm won the wireless subscriber television licence, an acquisition that sparked allegations that it had links with the ruling People’s National Party, given that it beat off challenges by the RJR Group-controlled Jamaica Entertainment Choice (JEC) and Super Cable Ltd, in which CVM Television is a significant shareholder.

N5 Systems, however, denied any such links and a company spokesman at the time told the Observer that the firm was made up of “a group of hard working young Jamaicans”, most of whom were University of the West Indies graduates.

Last week, Raglan said that the wireless television service, which will be provided through a Multi-channel Multi-point Distribution System (MMDS), will be fully interactive and will allow for distance learning classes in all areas of Jamaica.

Raglan expects to have total coverage of the island in 24 months. Following on this weekend’s soft launch of the service in Kingston and Portmore in St Catherine, the second phase will include Montego Bay and Mandeville.

“When the system is fully up, and we are expecting that it will be in 24 months, we will offer over 130 channels of video programming, over 20 channels of audio programming along with other data services,” Raglan said.

He also said the company expected to have at least 30,000 subscribers in its first year of operations.

“You see, I know that over that period digital wireless cable television will become the system of choice,” Raglan said and added that initial feedback from test transmissions now being carried out from the company’s St Catherine, St Mary, Clarendon and St Thomas sites has been excellent.

He declined to quote prices, offering only that they would be “a little higher” than those charged by the ordinary cable operators. However, he did say that installation will cost each householder US$170. There will also be a monthly service cost of US$30 and customers can buy a set-top-box with connecting cables to their televisions for less than US$200.

Raglan also said that the system will offer pay-per-view on special events and the latest movies at special prices.