Digicel revealed it was awarded 10MHz of 700Mhz frequency requested from the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT), a move to enable its recently launched 4G service.
In an interview with TechNewsTT, Chandrika Samaroo, Digicel chief technical officer, said the operator requested the extra spectrum since launching its 4G mobile service, but stated its half of what is required to support future 4G services.
The operator deployed 200 cell sites compatible with the 700Mhz band in areas of high demand, Samaroo said “those sites will be activated over the next two to three weeks”, with another 30 sites to be installed by February or March and another 80 planned. The latter sites are to address gaps in rural coverage, said Samaroo.
The 200 sites cost the operator $35 million as part of the company’s 2018 expansion programme, the future sites will cost another $20-30 million.
Samaroo said 75% of devices on Digicel’s network can access the 700MHz band and 86% are three-band carrier aggregation (3C) compatible.
The operator reported a 50 per cent growth in traffic in users using 30 per cent more data, with the surge down to use of internet services Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom.