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Gentle people, Digicel Play Cable service, the first FTTH (Fiber to the house) Cable service in Jamaica, is now live…..and very quietly too!

Digicel Play launches FTTH Network - How FLOW Jamaica and Liberty Global Empire Will Strike Back - 23-11-2015 LHDEER (1)

Digicel officially launched the brand on Thursday December 3rd 2015 at the Digicel Play lab. Check out the action via these images posted on Twitter on Jean Lowrie-Chin ‏@souldancing and Dr. Marcia Forbes ‏@marciaforbes Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/marciaforbes/status/672612481550835712

They’ll also be employing some 1000 people to spread the gospel of Digicel Play Fiber Optic Cable service to some 150,000 homes.

Digicel is using a strategy that reminds me of Jehovah’s Witnesses coming to your door to spread the gospel of Jesus. In this case, that gospel it the message of Fiber Optic Triple Play Service coming to your home!

Currently they’re doing this stealthy, door-to-door, possibly to avoid appearing on FLOW Jamaica’s radar as they steal away their customer quietly in the following locations:

  • Corporate Area
  • Spanish Town
  • Portmore

This is the same Fiber Optic Cable Service I’d predicted would be built from the purchase of Telstar Cable service purchase in July 2014 a noted in Kelroy’s article Digicel to Acquire Jamaica’s Telstar Cable.

With superb Caribbean and international sports content from SportsMax, now renamed Digicel SportsMax as noted in Digicel Sportsmax NBA deal means fiber and 4G LTE coming this year, if Heaven doesn’t have Digicel Play service, I might have to reconsider my afterlife plans!

So aside from this excellent content offering, what does Digicel Play Cable service offer that Flow Jamaica doesn’t?

Digicel Play is now officially in Play – Why Fiber to the House is the New Lick for Telstar Cable customers

Accordion to their Digicel Play Webpage hosted on Digicel Group’s website, Digicel Play is a Triple Play service offering Fiber TV, Fiber internet and Home Phone service. Their different services can be purchased as bundles, with their main offering being Cable Service, which you can stream on you smartphone using the Digicel Play App.

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Their FTTH the following features:

  • One Set Top Box (STB) & Remote
  • Personal Video Recorder
  • Pause & Rewind Live TV (Time Shift)
  • On Demand
  • Picture in Picture
  • Mosaic
  • 3 months FREE Cloud Storage

Translation: the ability to view some four (4) channels simultaneous on your HDTV screen or smartphone. You’ll also get a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) with picture-in-picture capability, making it possible to scope out the action on another channel.

So what good on Digicel Play? Their three (3) Cable packages are what’s good, giving you plenty of channels to choose from:

  • JA$3,399.00 Play Now, with 177 channels, 41 of which are HD
  • JA$3,399.00 Play More, with 192 channels, 47 of which are HD
  • JA$6,699.00 Play Large, with 223 channels, 70 of which are HD

Their three (3) Broadband Internet Packages are quite impressive:

  • US$4,099.00 Play 25; 25MBps Download and 5MBps Upload
  • US$8,699.00 Play 50; 50MBps Download and 10MBps Upload
  • US$10,899.00 Play 100; 100MBps Download and 50MBps Upload

Their phone service is equally generous, providing you with a Free Cordless Handset and sporting the following standard features that are not much too much to write home about:

  • Caller ID
  • Call Waiting
  • 3 Way Calling
  • Unlimited calls to Digicel Play phone numbers

The plans are interesting though:

  • JA$799 Play Home with unlimited on Net minutes and O Bundles Minutes
  • JA$1,699 Play Home and Away with unlimited on Net minutes and 500 Bundles Minutes

There are also some add on bundles Minutes that you can buy to upp your Local, International and Anywhere minutes game for the rather sparse Play Home plan. These might need little work, as they are just monthly packages with no pay-as-you-go option.

Clearly Digicel want you to get hooked on Postpaid, as their current Merry Millions Promotion as described in Digicel DL910 revealed in Merry Millions Promotion suggests!

Digicel Play has HBO – Why FLOW Jamaica must Die even as FLOW Jamaica Awakens the Force

Pricewise this is very similar to FLOW Jamaica. The real talking point is their Fiber Optic Internet service, with max speeds of 500 MBps upload and 1 GBps downloads. Jamaica is also late to the Game, as Digicel Play is already live in the PNG (Papau New Guinea) and Turks and Caicos, who’ve been surfing on light fiber since early 2015.

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If Digicel Play which if it lives up to the expectations of Fiber Optic, they will be a triple threat to FLOW Jamaica. From a price point of view, their prices are similar to ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) services that maxes out at 8 MBps and their legacy 100MBps capable Coaxial Cable based Broadband Network.
But FLOW Jamaica Cable Network seems to only have inherited more problems along with the fancy name in December 2014 LIME Jamaica Goes with the FLOW thanks to Caribbean-wide Survey.

Especially now that the Cable Industry is having to remove some ninety eight (98) Cable Channels as noted HBO back on Cable as Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica regulates making many customer have a reason to ditch FLOW Jamaica over their price increases.

Also, don’t forget, Digicel Play as HBO, which means they have some great content such as Game of Thrones as noted in Digicel carrying HBO on Caribbean Wide Cable Service.  Combine this with the previously mentioned Digicel SportsMax and Digicel Play Cable service and blazing fast Broadband Internet service and it make become very difficult for you to leave the house each day!

Especially with Internet Speeds like those shown in the Tweet by Gordon Swaby @GordonSwaby

 

FLOW Jamaica will definately hope that their Merry Up Christmas as described in How Flow Jamaica Merry Up Christmas promotion plans to Awaken The Force will be enticing enough to prevent customer disgruntled with their Cable service from jumping ship!

So my Clarendon and Montego Bay peeps, you’ll have to wait a bit longer as Digicel has to please their Telstar Cable customers first. They expanding into the original areas that Telstar Cable and FLOW Jamaica has Cable service.

After that, Digicel will conquer the Cable TV Industry….one house at a Time, Jehovah’s Witness Style!

Here’s the link:

Digicel Play Webpage

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