CARICEL - Jamaica's third mobile services provider

[Dre']

Their network is "active" - it's still in testing, on iPhones I suppose it's 338-020 with an LTE search (was previously 311-890 for Globecomm Corp, the company hosting their EPC (in New York) and building their Converged Packed Gateway to connect local (Jamaica) and EPC + NOC in New York for Caricel)... Can only be seen in the KMA area tho...

Also, I suppose their on either bands 13, 20 or 25 just based on observation (comparison and contrast of phones who can and can't see the network).

Could be band 20(800), as band 13 and 25 is hardly used by any carrier in the western side and most phone don't even support band band 13 and 25.

[GPRS Internet]

If they gonna offer data only how is it going to work?? I mean I have a dual sim phone so I guess I could get a sim from them and use data from it.. but what about people that don't have dual sim??

Or am I missing something ??

**** Edit ****

Just seen on their twitter where they make mention of talking.. so I guess they will offer calling plans which as mentioned could be only VOIP.

Caricel ‏@Caricel1 Apr 22

Caricel: where talking is easy and surfing is fun! #Caricel #talkingiseasy #surfingisfun #hereandnow
https://twitter.com/Caricel1/status/723583388246892544

[DarkAngel]

While Im happy with a supposedly local company getting this licence, I was somewhat concern about the initial secrecy surrounding who was granted the licence, for months I noticed that both past and present Technology Ministers deliberately refuse to name names, only recently the name was given, Symbiote Investments ltd who will operate under the name Caricel. I found it interesting the address of Symbiote Investments ltd, as stated on the OUR website - 4 Eastwood Avenue, Kingston 10, a quick check confirm that it was the same address as Index Communication owners of Gotel (some of you should remember and cringe at that company name ). Is Symbiote Investments ltd and Index Communication one and the same, or did the former just bought out the property of the latter, just curious?

[Brandysull]

Could be band 20(800), as band 13 and 25 is hardly used by any carrier in the western side and most phone don't even support band band 13 and 25.

iPhones from the 5s up support those bands in all SKUs...

[clemull]

Looks like Caricel has an app on the IOS Appstore. VOIP dialer, most likely business targeted.

http://caricel.appstor.io/

Caricel is a mobile dialer or application which makes VoIP calls with minimum iOS version support of 6.0 on Apple iPhone, iPad and it uses the 3G/Edge/wifi Internet connectivity.

Caricel is developed based on the requirements of VoIP Providers business needs.

Features :-

Caricel uses SIP protocol based for signaling.
Caricel Supports all codecs.
Caricel run Behind NAT or private IP.
User Friendly Interface.
Auto Sync of Balance.
Real Time Sip status messages.
Call History.
Loud Speaker.
Hold.
Address book integration.
Compatible with all sip standard switches.
It has very efficient implementation of jitter buffer to play voice smoothly.
Silent suppression and comfort noise generation has been used to reduce the bandwidth usage, and this makes the dialer more efficient in making VoIP calls.

[876]

When I heard flow talk about they not able to offer unlimited mobile Internet it made me wonder because they have all these undersea cables which aren't even being used to even 30% of their true capacity especially the ones connecting to Jamaica , so what in heavens could be stopping them from giving people the ability to say pay 5k a month on mobile for true unlimited Internet.

I think if caricel or digicel smart they would at least offer that or white list some services such as YouTube and any website with a .Com.jm domain. Why have all the latest speeds and technology and can't use it to its true potential. Not because a few data hogs on the network means everyone should suffer from lack of options.

All they would have to do is to limit the daily allotment I once suggested to them to have a plan which gives say 1.5 gbps per day as the fair usage amount then reduce u to edge after at unlimited speeds. Also if they smart they would use some advance dns system to block out torrents and other illegal sites and prohibit alternative dns from being used. Services such as open dns and many others offer this feature.

Clearly they have the ability to restrict access to certain stuff as they do free Facebook etc so I don't see what is stopping them from offering limit less plans.

[psilos]

The main issue with unlimited plans on 3G mobile networks is the fact that voice is also shared on the medium so there is a risk of data usage affecting the voice part of the network due to capacity. Backhaul also plays a very important part but I think FLOW has that covered in spades as a good portion of their sites are directly covered via fibre.

The whitelisting and the daily cap is a good idea and I hope your suggestion is pursued.

[Jamlynx]

LTE networks are ALL-IP based so any voice would be VoIP like, in this case VoLTE. Carriers with legacy networks would have a failback to 3G/2G circuit switched networks but as they are new they can skip that part altogether resulting in a easier to manage network and significant cost savings.

The Verizons, AT&Ts, etc would have loved to dump their circuit switched networks but VoLTE only became usable in the real world in the last 2 years and even now there isn't any interoperability between each other.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/...app/2016-02-29

So if I want to make a phone call I have to use a VOIP app?..or perhaps that 'IP dial' feature in recent android versions?

Also will high-end phones like the S6 with allot of LTE bands be ready to work with caricel or will it need custom software?

[psilos]

Looks like Caricel has an app on the IOS Appstore. VOIP dialer, most likely business targeted.

http://caricel.appstor.io/
...

Looks like they also have an Android app so with apps for the major smartphone platforms that answers how they will handle the voice part on their LTE network.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...om.app.caricel

[Dre']

Looks like they also have an Android app so with apps for the major smartphone platforms that answers how they will handle the voice part on their LTE network.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...om.app.caricel

Updated
March 25, 2015

seems like no further testing was done on the android app.