Digicel LTE

[Brandysull]

Any news on Digicel LTE as it relates to upgrades and LTE Advanced. I wish there was a way to directly contact Digicel engineering department. Their mobile service has become very horrible, LTE slow, no LTE A and calls dropping constantly. More of us need to speak out, as when the problems are reported to Digicel. They keep treating it as a individual issue, rather than a national issue.

Digicel's network is really in a sad state of affairs... I've been hearing of issues relating to service quality and network availability; not the Digicel we used to know. They recently announced they doubled speeds (added 10 MHz of Band 4) to add a bit of zest to the network. Truth is, they were doomed at the start when they thought that could depend on Band 17 to do the leg work for the network. The competition did their homework, added spectrum PROACTIVELY and are now reaping the results (in lower cost per GB) in key markets (Jamaica & Panama to be specific). In my area, Digicel has 20 MHz of spectrum which yields good speeds BUT when compared to the whopping 100+ Mbit/s I get from their competition, it's comical...

As fir Digicel Engineering... looking at the current spectrum allocations, they can go still go wideband on Band 4 but the SMA might reject any bid for that spectrum to have room for a third mobile player. FLOW likely was not given Band 13 for this exact reason (and is perhaps why they went and purchased 25 MHz of PCS to add to their 20 MHz of AWS; to help offset the lack of wiggle room with Band 12). FLOW's spectrum holding are also strategic too; Digicel will never be able to hold an advantage. It can only catch up to a point.

[Nathan77791]

Digicel's network is really in a sad state of affairs... I've been hearing of issues relating to service quality and network availability; not the Digicel we used to know. They recently announced they doubled speeds (added 10 MHz of Band 4) to add a bit of zest to the network. Truth is, they were doomed at the start when they thought that could depend on Band 17 to do the leg work for the network. The competition did their homework, added spectrum PROACTIVELY and are now reaping the results (in lower cost per GB) in key markets (Jamaica & Panama to be specific). In my area, Digicel has 20 MHz of spectrum which yields good speeds BUT when compared to the whopping 100+ Mbit/s I get from their competition, it's comical...

As fir Digicel Engineering... looking at the current spectrum allocations, they can go still go wideband on Band 4 but the SMA might reject any bid for that spectrum to have room for a third mobile player. FLOW likely was not given Band 13 for this exact reason (and is perhaps why they went and purchased 25 MHz of PCS to add to their 20 MHz of AWS; to help offset the lack of wiggle room with Band 12). FLOW's spectrum holding are also strategic too; Digicel will never be able to hold an advantage. It can only catch up to a point.

It is indeed, nevertheless I spoke to Mr Elon Parkinson of Digicel via Email. And he said Digicel has enough Bands for LTE and LTE A. I figure low Capex is the root of Digicel woes with its Mobile and fixed Network. I'm not even sure if Digicel is certified by Apple for IPhone and its support services. I'm guessing Digicel plans to refarm existing bands to LTE to make up network capacity. They do have 1800 and 1900 MHz spectrum. Which they can use to go wideband on their network. Hopefully the SMA realizes that its not good for the country. To have one carrier with two wideband LTE spectrum, and the other unable to purchase any. Its not good for Jamaica as a whole, so they need to allow Digicel to buy wideband spectrum if they need to.

[Brandysull]

It is indeed, nevertheless I spoke to Mr Elon Parkinson of Digicel via Email. And he said Digicel has enough Bands for LTE and LTE A. I figure low Capex is the root of Digicel woes with its Mobile and fixed Network. I'm not even sure if Digicel is certified by Apple for IPhone and its support services. I'm guessing Digicel plans to refarm existing bands to LTE to make up network capacity. They do have 1800 and 1900 MHz spectrum. Which they can use to go wideband on their network. Hopefully the SMA realizes that its not good for the country. To have one carrier with two wideband LTE spectrum, and the other unable to purchase any. Its not good for Jamaica as a whole, so they need to allow Digicel to buy wideband spectrum if they need to.

Your prayers have been answered I guess! I'm hearing that Digicel has gone wideband on Band 4 (20 MHz)... after seemingly an eternity.

[Nathan77791]

Your prayers have been answered I guess! I'm hearing that Digicel has gone wideband on Band 4 (20 MHz)... after seemingly an eternity.

Really? I'm excited. Any credible source you could find out from. If this is indeed true?. I'm still picking up 10mhz of Band 4 from Digicel in my location. I really hope this is true, as Digicel really needs this.

[Brandysull]

Really? I'm excited. Any credible source you could find out from. If this is indeed true?. I'm still picking up 10mhz of Band 4 from Digicel in my location. I really hope this is true, as Digicel really needs this.

A user sent me a screenshot of the EARFCN 2060 reporting a bandwidth of 20 MHz on 338 05 (Digicel). Good on them! They desparately need it. The competition is practically all LTE islandwide now... 3G is a relic of the past now (thankfully).

Also, all the interruptions on the voice platform? People's iPhones now reading VoLTE on/off... Digicel's got a lot of catching up to do lol

[Nathan77791]

A user sent me a screenshot of the EARFCN 2060 reporting a bandwidth of 20 MHz on 338 05 (Digicel). Good on them! They desparately need it. The competition is practically all LTE islandwide now... 3G is a relic of the past now (thankfully).

Also, all the interruptions on the voice platform? People's iPhones now reading VoLTE on/off... Digicel's got a lot of catching up to do lol

It's true, I got it confirmed. Plus I'm now picking up 20mhz of LTE band 4 from Digicel. I'm also getting 10mhz of band 12. But band 12 and 17 are almost the same, but it was created for the American Network AT&T. VoLTE should hit Digicel in due time. As Thier Network vendor ZTE is big on it in its Uni Ran software platforms. Plus Digicel partnered with Lifecell/Turkcell to offer fully digital products and services. Inclusive of voice, texts, music and multimedia. It's imperative for Digicel to go VoLTE. They already have HD voice.

[Brandysull]

It's true, I got it confirmed. Plus I'm now picking up 20mhz of LTE band 4 from Digicel. I'm also getting 10mhz of band 12. But band 12 and 17 are almost the same, but it was created for the American Network AT&T. VoLTE should hit Digicel in due time. As Thier Network vendor ZTE is big on it in its Uni Ran software platforms. Plus Digicel partnered with Lifecell/Turkcell to offer fully digital products and services. Inclusive of voice, texts, music and multimedia. It's imperative for Digicel to go VoLTE. They already have HD voice.

Well, Band 12 does span the range of Band 17, Digicel is using a technology called MFBI to do exactly that. As for VoLTE, that's a bit more work than just 3G Voice. I think all of the service disruptions on the FLOW side are as a result of some work being done in the background. Same issue being faced here is being faced by people in Barbados too...

[GPRS Internet]

Am I suppose to see LTE+ on phone now????

[Brandysull]

Am I suppose to see LTE+ on phone now????

Yes... You should have been seeing it for a while now, actually. Due to their recent updates, you should be seeing speeds of up to 225 Mbit/s (max. theoretical).

Even with that, the competition is pushing top-class speeds...



I don't think FLOW is resting on their laurels either... all these outages mean they're up to something!

[GPRS Internet]

Phone still show just LTE ... Speeds is still 10-13mbps ... 15mbps on a good day..
Digicel LTE did crash in Mobay few months ago It was ok at launch, but nor that the traffic on it it's slowwwww.