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| Local telecomS firms are all awaiting the Government's next move to pass laws required to give teeth to its plan for a system of mandatory registration of subscriber information (MSRI) in Jamaica, but already, one company, Claro, is throwing its unconditional support behind the move, even as its competitors, Digicel and LIME, adopt a more a cautious tone.
The Government's intention to introduce an MSRI system to help stem the worsening crime situation was announced almost two weeks ago by National Security Minister Dwight Nelson. The initiative is expected to see the three mobile phone companies providing data on request as part of law enforcement. Already, the Government has held talks with all three firms regarding the legislative requirements for implementation, director of communications and public affairs at the security ministry, Gillian Haughton, said this week. "The Ministry of National Security had a major round of discussions with the security forces on the security threat that the absence of MRSI poses for the country's security," Haughton said. The ministry is "looking at the question of the legal framework" under which the registration and tracking system would be introduced, she said. "We welcome the move and are committed to it," said marketing manager of Claro Jamaica, Joseph Oates. "Claro completely supports anything and everything that will assist in stemming or reducing crime." Oates said the telecoms provider's Mexican operation already had such a system in place. "Claro's inclusion of this locally should not, therefore, prove difficult," he said. "We are patiently waiting on further information from the Government (and), once the Government indicates its course of action, we will determine how to proceed and what systems to implement." Digicel, while supporting the proposed new dimension to the Government's crime-fighting initiative, said the potential cost was among its concerns. "The effect of such a move will depend on the specific requirements set by Government," said Richard Fraser, head of legal and regulatory affairs. "As matters currently stand, the costs associated with establishing a unique database of subscriber information which accords with the Government's requirements remains unclear, particularly in respect of how it is to be funded and the timelines for implementation." LIME Jamaica said it was still evaluating the proposal and would not be drawn into commenting. "We respectfully decline to speak on the issue at this time," Camille Taylor, corporate communications manager at the company, said by email this week. Their different preliminary responses aside, both Claro and Digicel have found common ground on the matter of subscriber confidentiality in the operation of the proposed system. "Digicel is, and has always been, obliged to keep subscriber information confidential," its spokesman, Fraser, said. "Disclosure of subscriber information is governed by the Telecommunications Act and Interception of Communications Act, whereby operators are only required to disclose information pursuant to a court order. As far as we are aware, the proposed implementation of mandatory registration requirements would not change this obligation or process." Digicel, whose business spans the Caribbean, is subject to similar registration requirement in Guyana. The Irish-owned firm, which is headquartered in Jamaica, has also expressed concern about the fate of customers who purchased SIM cards prior to the company having implemented its own registration of clients' personal details in June last year. Currently, the mandatory registration of subscribers is practised in a number of countries, including Nigeria, Bulgaria and Malaysia, targeting prepaid subscribers in particular. In each case, the scheme was introduced to enable authorities to track perpetrators of serious crimes, such as assassinations, kidnapping and drug dealing. - mark.titus@gleanerjm.com Full story |
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| CoreTalk, a company established to employ SMS messaging as a comprehensive, affordable self managed communication system for any business is looking to make a mark in Jamaica.
It was formed ten years ago with the aim of making better use of text messaging and launched its operations in Jamaica six months ago. CoreTalk prides itself as the world's only customer relationship management solution that uses text messaging. So what does that really mean? What that means is that organisations can deploy the benefits of text messaging in an enterprising environment in all facets of their business. Speaking with Sunday Finance, Coretalk Caribbean's excecutive chairman, Neil Patrick said: "Right now text messaging is the most widespread medium of telecommunication on the planet, so businesses that are not incorporating it in their communications operations are at a serious disadvantage. In terms of Jamaica we are expanding very quickly and have among others NCB, Hawkeye and Nestle as clients." According to Patrick, over 100 million text messages are sent every month in Jamaica, highlighting its effectiveness as a business communication tool. He further added that whereas only 40 per cent of people have access to e-mail, practically everybody has access to a mobile telephone with 1.1 million people sending text messages. Patrick noted that at the high-end, Blackberry is doing very well particularly with its Messenger service. "If you want to communicate with your stakeholders, suppliers, customers and vendors immediately, text messaging is the way to go," said Patrick. Coretalk Caribbean's CEO Tyrone Wilson said that his company eZine acquired a stake in Coretalk and is now handling the day-to-day-operations. "The plan is to have a footprint in Jamaica before entering other Caribbean markets. We already have a provisional deal for Trinidad and clients in Cayman where we are looking to establish an operating base their. Next year we will take a look at the Eastern Caribbean," added Wilson. To put the rise of texting in context, fifteen years ago the main way to communicate with a company was by the telephone. Today all companies have an e-mail address or some kind of online presence. "Compared with many countries, mobile telephones add tremendous value in Jamaica where the service is provided at a low cost, hence text messaging is extremely cost effective. CoreTalk offers a monthly subscription for US$49.00," said Patrick. The software has a Spanish language component and is feature rich, easy to use intuitive product. It has been designed for call centre level. The SMS traffic is sent directly from your computer and does not go through any third party provider or server. You have complete control and a transparent overview of your entire communications process with a searchable record of all transactions. With standard rated mobile numbers and a linked return path, communication is totally bi-directional from computer to handset and vice-versa. Full story |
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| Vaz Announces Digicel Internship for CCNA Graduates
KINGSTON (JIS): Wednesday, July 29, 2009 Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Information and Telecommunications, Hon. Daryl Vaz, has announced that Digicel is to establish a yearly internship programme for 10 persons who complete the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) programme. However, Minister Vaz expressed disappointment that only 10 per cent of the persons who registered for the CCNA programme, continue through to becoming certified. He was making his contribution to the 2009/10 Sectoral Debate in Parliament last Wednesday (July 22). CCNA is an internationally recognised Information Technology (IT) certification programme. It is also the principal technical qualification for persons who wish to work in the hardware side of computer networking. CCNA certification validates the ability to install, configure, operate and troubleshoot medium-sized routed and switched networks, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a Wide Area Network (WAN). The Minister noted that based on the performance of the interns over each one-year period, Digicel will employ top performers. "This initiative is an example of enlightened self interest, and I now challenge all other companies that could benefit from employing highly trained ICT (Information and Communication Technology) professionals, to offer similar incentives to other participants who successfully complete the Cisco programme," Mr. Vaz said. He also commended the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC), for its significant contribution, in 25 years of existence, to the preservation of culture and the documentation of the country's national heritage. "Their CTV channel, along with that of the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ), continues to offer material which presents to, particularly, the younger generation, some of the rich music which the older ones among us probably took for granted, and affords exposure to our proud history and achievements," he said. Full story |
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| Written by Jamaica-Gleaner.com
Sunday, 14 February 2010 Prime Minister Bruce Golding has good enough reasons to support the Cybercrimes Bill after a recent incident left him holding thousands of US dollars in credit-card debt. Golding told fellow parliamentarians he had the shock of his life after his bank told him that thousands of US dollars in purchases were made on his Jamaican-issued credit-card account during a two-day spending spree. Golding, who had not travelled outside Jamaica in months, said his bank advised him that the money was used to buy several plane tickets. The incident, which occurred three months ago, was traced back to hackers thousands of kilometres away in the United Kingdom. pm reimbursed The prime minister, who was making a presentation on the new Cybercrimes Bill, recently returned by the Senate to the Lower House for amendments, said he was reimbursed, the account immediately closed, and a new credit card issued. "We are particularly familiar with the lotto scam in Montego Bay. It is not just the crime and the fraud that is committed, it is the murder to which it gives rise," Golding stated. The legislation imposes criminal sanctions on the misuse of computer systems or data. Offences covered include intentional unauthorised access to computer data; access to computer programmes or data with intent to commit any offence; intentional unauthorised modification of a computer programme or data; unauthorised interception of computer function or service; wilfull unauthorised obstruction of the operation of a computer or denial of access to a computer programme or data; and, unlawfully making available devices or data for the commission of any of the above offences. e-commerce boom The prime minister said that more consumers were carrying out business transactions via the Internet, and in the United States alone the value of e-commerce sales for 2009 was almost US$100 billion. He said that tackling cybercrime is particularly complex because it allows for virtual anonymity. "It is what they call illusive scene of crime," he pointed out. Some of the cybercrimes, he said, may not be "criminally intended but just plain mischief to spread a virus, to create excitement and panic, and to demonstrate that, as powerful as these systems are, somebody can compromise them". Full story |
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| Written by Jamaica-Gleaner.com
Monday, 14 December 2009 The seemingly free reign of lottery scammers could soon end as Government expects to pass, by next month, legislation aimed at crippling cyber crime activities that threaten to shut down the country's information communication technology (ICT) industry. "We have before the Senate, which will be going this week, a bill that should go into law within a month, that will see penalties imposed on persons engaged in cyber crimes. The penalties will range from two to 10 years and fines of two to five million dollars for abuses to that sector," Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Karl Samuda, disclosed at MegaMart's 10th anniversary ceremony in Montego Bay, St James on Saturday. "Where persons engaged in honest employment are not satisfied to get a wage, they wish to defraud the system by taking crucial information and transmitting them to persons who defraud the public. I wish to make this message go forward today in Montego Bay, that this administration is not going to tolerate it." Samuda said the move was critical to provide a trustworthy environment as the Government embarks on activities to attract foreign investment. The 'lotto scam', which has its genesis in Montego Bay, the hub for ICT businesses in Jamaica, is being blamed for the western city's frightening murder rate. Loss of jobs "I am mindful of the challenges that now confront the ICT sector, which operates here, where companies are challenged because there is an incident that challenges the very survival of that industry, where cyber crimes have risen to a level that at this time could see the loss of thousands of jobs unless we take decisive actions," he stated. The scam, which has left several communities awash with cash and enmity, is carried out by 'diallers'. They use illicitly obtained personal information from the ICT sector, to con mainly American residents into sending them money on the pretext that they had won a lottery and needed to send them money to clear their winnings. Cyber crime is defined as any criminal act that involves the use of computers and networks. It includes traditional crimes conducted through the Internet, for example hate crimes, telemarketing and Internet fraud, identity theft, and credit card thefts. Full story |
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| Written by jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, 27 November 2009 Leading mobile telephone company Digicel has accused both LIME and Claro of colluding to gain a competitive advantage in the landline market and is calling on LIME to embrace competition which can only benefit the Jamaican consumer. However, LIME is categorically refuting allegations made by Digicel that there is collusion between LIME and Claro in setting mobile prices. LIME Country Manager Geoff Houston dismissed the Digicel claim (which Digicel has lodged as a complaint to the Fair Trading Commission - FTC) as nothing more than a spurious attempt to keep inflated prices in the market and to distract the FTC from applying its energies to constraining Digicel's anti-competitive practices. Houston explained that LIME offered Digicel the same reciprocal termination rates offered to Claro and Digicel refused, but it appears that they did not disclose this to the FTC or to anyone else to whom they complained. But Digicel CEO, Mark Linehan hit back saying LIME's attempts to defend its monopoly in the fixed-line market is a reflection of the company's deepening crisis "We have seen in LIME's recent half-year results that its Caribbean sales have fallen by 15 per cent year-on-year and they continue to struggle in keeping up with the competition. LIME is now clinging to the hope that its traditional cash cow - the landline market - will keep the ship afloat long enough to complete demerger plans, which ultimately means it has to try to keep prices up." ... Full story |
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| Written by jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, 15 November 2009 Unsuspecting teenagers who frequent the many online social networking sites are now being targeted by extortionists in a new and alarming phase of the cyber crime being committed in the island. Known as 'net extortion', police at the Cyber Crime Investigation and Research Unit say that while they had anticipated that it would start here, they are surprised at its quick introduction, having watched its growth abroad. "I have been doing online investigation for years and following up online investigation and I could never imagine that this sort of social engineering and net extortion would have taken off in Jamaica so early," Cyber Crime Unit boss Detective Sergeant Patrick Linton told the Sunday Observer during an interview on Friday. "These things happen elsewhere. In other jurisdictions you have these kinds of crimes. I couldn't imagine it would have taken off in Jamaica at this stage," Linton reiterated. Net extortion appears to have been going on "for quite some months", according to information garnered through the Cyber Crime Unit's investigations, which started over the past week following a complaint from a young victim who has already lost $16,000 in phone credit. The credit was sent to an unregistered local cellular number.... Full story |
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| Written by jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, 15 November 2009 A Kingston schoolboy is now being investigated by the police's Cyber Crime Investigation and Research Unit after he was accused of trying to blackmail a female teacher with a digitally altered photograph. According to Detective Sergeant Patrick Linton, who heads the Cyber Crime Unit, the police received a report that the fifth former used his cellphone to take a picture of a teacher at his school, then used software to place the teacher's head onto a nude body. The boy then showed the teacher the altered photograph and "boldly" demanded $70,000 from her to prevent him from publishing the photo on the Internet. Linton said that incidents like this are also on the increase. Full story |
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| The Pacific islands are the last frontier for mobile telecommunications but the arrival of Irish-owned Digicel Pacific in the past three years has brought about a revolution.
Residents of the islands and visitors all have horror stories about the poor service and sky-high charges of telecoms monopolies in the Pacific. But the arrival of competition through Digicel means Pacific islanders are beginning to experience some of the benefits taken for granted elsewhere in the world. Digicel opened its first Pacific operations in Samoa on November 1, 2006 - exactly three years ago. Now it has expanded to Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Vanuatu, Fiji and Nauru, a total market of 7.5 million people, and the company has invested more than US$500 million and now employs 1,100 people. Digicel shows no sign of slowing down, planning to expand to the Solomon Islands, East Timor and Tahiti over the next year, Digicel Pacific chief executive Vanessa Slowey said... Full story |
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| Telecom operator, Claro Caribbean earned US$173 million in profit for its September third quarter prior to interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation charges (EBITDA), which was 13.8 per cent less than last year's quarter.
The decline was "mostly as a result of new taxes in Puerto Rico", said the company in its financials released last week. Claro Caribbean includes operations in Dominica Republic, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, and is a subsidiary of Mexico-based America Movil group. Claro Jamaica trails the local market in terms of subscribers with Digicel and Lime as major players, but the financials were not desegregated for individual Caribbean countries. The Caribbean division, however, rapidly grew its wireless subscriber base by 36.7 per cent to 5.81 million whilst its fixed subscriber base declined from 1.6 million to 1.54 million. The company added that its operations in the Caribbean Islands added "more than one million wireless subscribers in the first nine months of the year which was 33 per cent more than in the same period of 2008". It added that 185,000 clients were obtained in the last quarter alone... Full story |
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| Jamaica's growth in internet penetration over the five years to 2008 was the sixth highest amongst the 35 listed nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Information Economy Report 2009 published last month by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Jamaica also ranked 22nd in the Americas, which includes North America, Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of mobile subscriber penetration at 78.97 per cent of the Jamaican population, or 2.1 million. The report published October 22, did not give an overall country ranking but had subcategory ranking for internet, mobile and information communication technology (ICT) trade. Roughly half the Jamaican population now use the internet according to the report, which represents a 22.13 percentage point rise since 2003 (from 25.5 per cent to 47.65 per cent). The countries with faster percentage point growth were Argentina at 35.27, Columbia at 28.09, Antigua at 27.67, Barbados at 24.1 and St Kitts at 23.8... Full story |
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| Written by jamaica-gleaner.com
Friday, 16 October 2009 THE EDITOR, Sir: I read with interest the article in The Sunday Gleaner published October 11, written by José Otero of Signals Consulting on the impact of América Móvil's entrance into the Jamaican market on Digicel's performance. I am writing to correct suggestions made in the article of a 17 per cent decline in Digicel Jamaica's 2009 revenue to $426 million compared to $516 million in 2008. The correct figures are that Digicel Jamaica's revenues were 1.0 per cent lower for the year ended March 31, 2009, at $484 million. Flat performance The flat performance is entirely driven by the 20 per cent decline in the value of the Jamaican dollar against the US dollar during the year. On a constant currency basis - that is, if there had been no depreciation of the Jamaican dollar - Digicel Jamaica's full-year revenues would have been 6.0 per cent higher, demonstrating the continued strong underlying growth of the business. I understand that the limited available public information on Digicel makes it hard for external analysts to examine our business, however the figures presented in the article are based on a faulty model using inaccurate assumptions. Furthermore, none of the analysis was put to us by The Gleaner for comment prior to publication. In addition to the above, it is worth noting that since the rebrand of the Miphone business to Claro in October 2008, Digicel Jamaica has continued to add subscribers, gaining 53,000 subscribers between October 2008 and June 2009. I leave you to draw your own conclusions about who is potentially suffering from AMX's entry to the market. Mark Linehan Chief Executive Officer Digicel Jamaica Full story |
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