Regulator offers 5G spectrum, with rural Jamaica the price of entry

All 21 residents of Myersville, St Elizabeth stand to get the kind of mobile internet Kingston takes for granted, provided the regulator can find an operator willing to take up its recently launched 5G-capable spectrum offer.

Mobile operators are being offered 100 megahertz of spectrum capable of carrying faster streaming, steadier coverage and lower lag, on condition that they take the service into 210 rural communities the regulator counts as unserved or underserved.

“Licensees shall provide broadband services to the general population as well as to the designated underserved and unserved communities,” the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA) said in an invitation for expressions of interest issued on October 26.

Successful bidders must cover at least 50 per cent of the population within 12 months of a licence and at least 95 per cent within 24 months, both nationally and inside the listed communities. Submissions close on Friday, November 20.

The rural buildout echoes a condition the authority, which regulates radio frequency, attached to the 600MHz licence in 2024. It continues to flag that high-speed mobile internet coverage remains spotty outside the towns.

The offer names 210 communities across 13 of Jamaica’s 14 parishes, every one but Kingston, with a combined population of about 339,000. Westmoreland carries the most with 27, followed by St Elizabeth with 23 and Clarendon with 21 communities. They run from Part of Guys Hill in St Catherine, with 7,247 residents, down to Myersville in St Elizabeth, population 21.

Entries including Merrywood in St Elizabeth, population 134, and Skibo in Portland also sat on the list attached to the 2024 tender.

The document does not disclose the cost of the spectrum. Pricing will be set separately under the authority’s spectrum pricing framework.

Jamaica has three licensed mobile operators: Digicel, Flow and Rock Mobile. The Financial Gleaner has sought comment from each.

Flow acquired a licence and used 600MHz spectrum to switch on Jamaica’s first commercial 5G network in June, after spending more than US$24 million on spectrum and more than US$50 million on network upgrades.

“The band is harmonised globally as 3GPP Band 41 and is widely deployed for 4G LTE and 5G New Radio (NR) services,” the expression of interest stated.

Two years ago, SMA managing director Maria Myers-Hamilton played down the move to 5G as an emergent technology, telling the Financial Gleaner it would be incorrect to describe the 600MHz sale as a 5G spectrum licence.

In September, she said the authority was assessing the country’s future spectrum needs to prepare for 6G, even though international rollout is not expected before 2030.

“Demand for mobile broadband capacity in Jamaica continues to grow, driven by the proliferation of smartphones and connected devices, video streaming, cloud-based services and the Internet of Things, and by the central role of resilient mobile networks in disaster response and national recovery,” the authority said.

business@gleanerjm.com