Crouching LIME Huawei E586 Mi-Fi – Hidden Dekal Wireless Dragon

On Friday October 21^st 2011AD, LIME decided to let loose the Mobile Hotspot on the masses of 3G users. Specifically, the Huawei E586 Mobile Hotspot, or “Mi-Fi” as our American cousins to the North call this contrivance of Telecom Providers to have us spend more money using their addictive Wireless Broadband services. The Press Release can be perused at you leisure at LIME to offer Personal Mobile Internet Hot-spot – MiFi.

While I would love to rant about LIME and their past shenanigans in the Voice Telecoms arena, I have already decided to bury the hatchet the minute I had penned my ditty on telecom Providers wireless Broadband expansion in the aptly titled LIME, Digicel and FLOW – Leading the Global 4G Adoption Curve.

Good to note too, that the Telecom Provider will soon have their very own Telecom Regulator, their reactions to the sudden news thrust upon them penitently recorded by this scribe in the article New Telecom Act Coming for Jamaica – Providers surprised with their Own Regulator.

Plus, this product launch is strange. LIME is yet to reach the rest of the island, yet they have decided to launch the Huawei E586 Mobile Hotspot with their Network still barely managing 3.6MBps downlink speed theoretical. Congestion plagues their Network at peak traffic hours.

And yes, they are still to expand to the rest of the island, focusing the majority of their attention on Kingston Metropolitan, Portmore, Ocho Rios and Mobay. So is it a case of sagging demand for their 3G Modems? In a word yes, as Lee’s family led by Wayne Chen aka Lee Mubai, has come with his sword, the Green Destiny to slay the Telecom Providers’ Broadband Tiger, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon style.

That name grouping should ring a bell if you are a customer of Dekal Wireless and Nubian -1 Tech Services Limited, a pair of Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Networks that provide Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) access for some pretty competitive prices. It gets the designation “Municipal” as if enough Node B [equipment at the cell site] are provisioned with T1 and installed in a metropolitan area, such a Network can cover an entire municipality with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Internet Access at speeds capable of up to 300MBps theoretical.

Which is known as “wireless” among the trolloping lot who trot through New Kingston call “Wireless”, often standing outside of establishments and “stealing” access on their Blackberrys and other smartphones! These unwitting individuals, stealing time on their lunch breaks, are taking time to steal Internet access from open Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Hotspots in New Kingston.

Guess LIME had them in mind too when they let this Foo-Dog in the guise of the Huawei E586 Mobile Hotspot off the chain. Quite apt, as Huawei also happens to be the Telecom Equiptment Provider for GSM BTS (Base Transceiver Stations) used to make up the Node B’s that constitute Telecom Provider CLARO’s Network.

In a previous article last year October 2010AD, actually my very first article for fans of my writing style on Geezam, I did an article on the slowly rising prominence of Dekal Wireless and its future threat to Digicel 4G Broadband in Dekal Wireless: Broadband for the Masses.

The advantage of Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Networks such as Dekal Wireless and Nubian -1 Tech Service Limited:

• No modem required; most laptops, smartphones and Tablets come with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n built in
• Range of up to five (5) kilometers from the base station. Longer if you have a CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) installed at your house.
• Lower pricing when compared even to Digicel 4G Broadband

At the time of writing that article last year they were nowhere near islandwide. That has since changed, with their slow gradual expansion wafting words of possibly reaching Milk River on the South Coast of Clarendon, where I live.

Since then, Digicel 4G Broadband is yet to come to the little hamlet Town of Milk River, begging for Wireless Broadband Internet, despite claims of 25% the Broadband Market in nine (9) months time.

But if the words etched on the wall of the Geezam Blog by fellow blogger Horace in his rant online entitled Digicel Wimax: One Year After Launch ring true, I will sit pretty and await the coming of Dekal Wireless and Nubian-1 Tech Services Limited, as the advantages – and the price – right now, in this US Recession battered Jamaica Economy, are compelling.

Plus like other Jamaicans polled Dr. Hopeton Dunn and his team from Mona School of Business earlier this year as per my rant entitled Jamaica’s Low Net Penetration – Broadband Internet A Universal Right, the cost of Internet is unaffordable for a product I do not use everyday.

Since then Digicel 4G Broadband, whose technology is powered by WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d, e) and already provides CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) that also accesses to their 10MBps best effort Wireless Broadband facility via connection using an Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), has dropped the price on their USB WiMaX 4G Modem Dongle to match the price of the CLARO 3G Modem Dongle. Something is afoot, gentle reader…..

Clearly, LIME too, like Digicel, is worried that this slowly expanding juggernaut would have begun eroding their potential markets in areas that they are yet to launch outside of the metropoles of Jamaica, traditional stomping grounds for the Big Telecom Providers. Ditto too the same worry for Digicel.

Or as Jamaicans would say “dawg a sweat but long hair hide it”!

Hence the introduction, with little fanfare from LIME as they had done with their Apple iPhone 4 Drunken Master Launch as pictorially presented in Photos: LIME Jamaica iPhone 4 Launch and hAPPy Hour.

Save of course for the Press Release of the Huawei E586 Mobile Hotspot, as it makes no sense to release a device that effectively allows four (4) persons to share a 3.6MBps connection – except if they are facing some serious competition from Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n). Hence the Dekal Wireless and Nubian-1 Tech Services Limited connection!

It also slots nicely into their coming upgrades to HSDPA+ Release 7 Network capable of speeds of 42MBps best effort as so kindly noted in LIME, Digicel and FLOW – Leading the Global 4G Adoption Curve. Clearly LIME is getting ready for the push Caribbean-wide by December 2012AD, whetting the customer appetite for Wireless Broadband via this tethered Huawei E586 Mobile Hotspot!

It also serves as a platform for their launch of 3D HDTV capable IPTV Streaming Service later in the First Quarter of 2012AD in partnership with IPTV Streaming Provider, Avail-TVN. More on that in another article follow-on like batsman Chris Gaye of West Indies Cricket fame, 100 not out!

Dekal Wireless and Nubian -1 Tech Services Limited, in their clever guile, are slowly expanding islandwide. Treading softly, quietly, via word of mouth and sweet-tooth ice-cream laden Newspaper ads and their little trafficked website like a Hidden Dragon. LIME, the Crouching Tiger, have set their Huawei E586 Mobile Hotspot or “MI-Fi” to pounce by 2012AD…..