Thanks to a concerted effort by staff of telecommunications company LIME over recent years, its customers can now look forward to the best available Internet service in the world, with the extremely fast and efficient “4G”mobile technology, the first of its kind in the Caribbean.
This $80 million development, which is said to be set to “radically change” the social and business landscape of people’s lives, was revealed by LIME’s Managing Director, Alex McDonald, during a press conference at the Crane Hotel on Tuesday – World Telecommuni-cations Day.
With network changes set to be rolled out from next month, the current 2.75G experienced in Barbados – commonly known as the Edge network – will be bypassing the 3G capabilities currently available in Jamaica and stepping up to the premier service found in just a few developed countries in the world.
Persons will experience higher speed access to Internet-enabled services through mobile devices as well as significantly increased network download and upload capabilities. This means that video chat without Wi-Fi dependency, the sending of e-mails with large attachments, quicktime browsing, the download of images, apps, and music in “the blink of an eye”, and many more enhanced features will now become the norm.
Expressing that “this is where LIME’s customers want to be”, McDonald noted that this “G-volution” announcement follows last month’s significant step in which the company, with the help of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce, unveiled a million-dollar Wi-Fi project for Bridgetown.
Focusing on the slogan “Fast, Smart, Imagine”, McDonald shared with several members from the media that he believes the opportunities stemming from this gigantic technological advancement are endless, with expanded scope for business and social communication endeavours.
“We are looking to create the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Larry Page. We are a talented set of human beings. We have created a musical genius like Rihanna, there must be a technological tycoon waiting to use our backbone,” he stated, before adding that he expects this new-found “freedom” to also transform how learning and education is approached.
A similar launch also took place in the Cayman Islands yesterday, while other Caribbean countries can look forward to upgrades over the next few months.
4G will serve as a platform for LIME’s future network development as the protocols are “fully compatible” with Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology, which will power mobile networks in the future.
Throughout the savvy presentation, which featured a video presentation, some of the lucky attendees also went home with iPads and smart phones, compliments of LIME
