BTL 4G - for many phone users saying that name is almost like a curse word - and that's because of the system's unreliability, its slowness and the overall congestion. Well the antidote to all that is 4G LTE - that LTE means long term evolution and it promises speeds of anywhere between 50 MEGS and 100 MEGS - that's at least 20 times faster than the speeds you are currently getting on 4G. But, don't get all hyped up yet - the service won't roll out until the end of the year.
Today BTL held a press conference at the Hour Bar to announce the deal with Chinese telecom giant Huawei to purchase the 4g LTE switch. Chairman of the Executive Committee Anwar Barrow says they want to BTL to go from the second slowest to the third fastest bandwidth provider in the region:
Anwar Barrow, Chairman, Exec. Committee - BTL
"What we are doing with LTE is really launching a round-year plan to bring the country into a more competitive standpoint and our objectives is to be top three within the region by 2020. Right now we are as a country at number 25 out of 27 and our ambition is to be within the top 3 by 2020."
Nestor Vasquez, Chairman - BTL Board
"This allows BTL to continue to do its part to fulfil the expressed objective of the government of Belize to expand the reach and quality of broadband access to Belizean citizens across our beautiful nation."
So what's it going to cost - and will it reach your neck of the woods? Barrow said a major part of the project is the installation of 5 dozen new cell sites:..
Anwar Barrow, Chairman, Exec. Committee - BTL
"The project is going to cost 40 million dollars Belize. For the next 5 years we plan to have the launched by the end of this year. The brand new 4G LTE mobile network will be the only LTE network in the country with extended and full nationwide coverage. It's a huge project. It involves not only the evolution of our current network and the installation of LTE at all 97 existing sites, but it involves the addition of 61 new sites. So we are going from 97 to over 150 sites countrywide. The LTE technology itself is so efficient that the amount of capacity that it can take is far and above what we realistically expect to put on it at least for certainly within the first few years."
So, it's 40 million dollars for countrywide coverage, but in December SMART rolled out its own 4g LTE which they invested 9 million dollars on? BTL's switch costs more than 400% more - so what's the difference:
Nestor Vasquez, Chairman - BTL Board
"Regarding with the first point to make with the 9 million announced by Speednet with our 40 million. I can only give you one simple answer, we are not buying the same thing. That's for sure, okay."
Indeed, BTL's switch is from Huawei, the Chinese company which has emerged as one of the largest telecom equipment manufacturing companies in the world. But, it's still an emerging company, not a long established name like Ericsson, CISCO or Alcatel. We asked the visiting executive about how Huawei stands up to its competitors:...
Tim Danks, VP, Professional Services - Huawei
"While we are the largest telecom provider, yet in some ways we act as a startup. How big is Huawei? We have over 180,000 employees, we have operate in 170 countries and our revenues total approximately 63 billion in 2015."
Anwar Barrow, Chairman, Exec. Committee - BTL
"This is a huge company. This is a global player - 180,000 employees, 70,000 in research and development alone. This is the Rolls-Royce of networks we are getting."
So, 4g LTE should roll out by the end of the year - but don't buy your LTE smartphone just yet because BTL says they have not yet made a decision on pricing.
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