Claro kindly provided me with some Huawei E226 3G modems to facilitate some testing for a company in Jamaica that was looking at options for conducting live streaming. I informed that I was going to conduct a review for this blog and I finally completed my testing over the weekend.
I visited a number of locations around Jamaica and attempted to connect to the web with 3G or Edge (it decides automatically). 3G is definitely not available all over the island at this time but Claro has informed me that more towers will be added in the near future, thus improving service. Below are the locations and the results:
Kingston - 3G worked perfectly
Morant Bay - 3G worked perfectly
Ocho Rios - Experienced problems sometimes but was able to connect to 3G other times
Montego Bay - Had trouble connecting but eventually got Edge
Savanna-La-Mar - 3G worked perfectly
Spanish Town - 3G worked perfectly
I did not make it to Negril to test.
My biggest surprise came when I tested at Lime Cay (a sandbar a few miles from Port Royal) and got a prefect 3G connection.
Verdict: A mobile Internet connection is available around most of the island with 3G in most places.
Naturally, no review is complete without comparing costs and looking at the competition.
Digicel does not offer unlimited Internet access plans to go with their modems so there is no competition there. Paying per MB is out of the question in my book.
LIME currently has a special offer: Free 3G modem with a 2-year contract or J$4,998 plus tax with a 1-year contract. LIME has no unlimited plan, they all have a cap. The most expensive monthly service costs J$5,000 per month, requires a J$3,000 deposit and has a cap of 7 GB of Internet use. Once you exceed that cap, you pay J$5 per MB.
How does Claro compare?
Huawei 3G modem - J$4,999 + tax
Nokia 3G modem - J$5,100 + tax
Monthly service - J$3,500 per month (pre-paid or post-paid), 3 GB of 3G, then it goes down to Edge, No Cap
You can also get the modem free with an 18-month contract and a J$7,000 deposit.
These are regular prices, not specials.
Verdict: Claro wins hands down on price, no cap, no contract required and monthly cost.
If you want Internet access on the road or be able to work from the beach, Claro is by far the cheapest way to go.
I will add my 2 cents.
3G service in Negril is fine. Ochi is the only place where I have had serious trouble connecting. I’ve even been as far inland as Dover and had solid 3G even driving through the mountains.
November 25th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Do you see this newly added service and pricing from Claro making a shift in the mobile market for 2010?
December 16th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Very good question Dale.
I hate to try and predict the future. With this, plus the free Dell Netbook I would have to say that Claro will be adding subscribers but mostly for data services, not voice.
Although the free blackberry bold deal is really making me think of switching (I prefer the iPhone though since it syncs better with my Mac).
Number portability would do more than anything to create a major shift in the market, especially away from LIME.
December 17th, 2009 at 2:42 am
What I do believe would be a value added service to Claro is enabling the customer to bring those services together through a unified communications. Would a netbook be as appealing to the average consumer or is it targeted to a slightly more tech savvy consumer who needs to have that kind of access on the go, then allowing for other services to be brought to the netbook may help their marketing along with demonstrated solutions.
Number portability, this has been the center of many discussions I have had before with my peers. I really do believe there needs to be a consortium that aids the Jamaica Government with decision in technology and telecommunications. Short Codes and number portability among other things such as legislation for online fraud and security. That’s another discussion.
December 20th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
I agree with your points Dale.
Claro seems to be targeting people who do not have a laptop but need one, giving them the Netbook option. Naturally these people are “tech-savvy” but probably not in the sense of the word that you and I tend to use it.
This seems to be an AT&T strategy: Get them hooked on one service, the unlimited data plan and free netbook, then once they realize the strength of the network, add a cellphone so that you just deal with one company.
Same reason Digicel is moving into television/cable.
December 21st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I recently had the opportunity to see this mobile cable broadcasting, which was pretty impressive, the technology that is. The demo allowed for a pretty impressive lineup of programming and the picture quality was great. I see World Cup being a pretty good launch pad for a service such as this.
January 1st, 2010 at 7:37 pm
TONI JAMAICA
I MUST ADMIT THAT CLARO DO HAVE THE BEST PACKAGE IN THE 3G WORLD, BUT WHEN WILL THEY DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE FACT THAT THEIR 3G MODEMS DONT WORK WITH WINDOWS 7 64BIT OPS. BOUGHT ONE THE OTHER DAY AND HAD TO RETURN IT, WOULD BE REALLY GOOD IF I COULD GET IT TO WORK WITH MY LAPTOP OVER THERE IN ST MARY.
January 1st, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Bull Savannah, St Elizabet. Claro does not work at all could not connect which was very unfortunate. Digicel is very expensive 40 jamaican dollars per 1 MB- it added up, to much money spent.
January 13th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Claro needs to train their staff, respecting line up.
Line up of potential clients, must be respected by attendants, which is not happening.
Anyone can enter and ask all the questions and forget about peoples in the line up. I walked out after 20 minutes and went to DIGICEL.
Baywest store, Montego Bay, first attendant by the door not event paying attention to how long the line up was to serve immediately and outside customer. SHAME ON YOU CLARO.
January 16th, 2010 at 2:19 am
MY problem with claro is this.
Theres no voice available. meaning that you cant make pc to pc calls. nor pc to cell. I do know lots of ppl in jamaica dont realy use this technology but many do. Id love if they could include that in their package.
Oh, and remember that digicel will be launching their package in april
January 21st, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Hey Lenox, well boiy I am looking forward to see what Digicel with be coming with and how. An exciting year ahead in mobile.
January 21st, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Lenox, you are right that most people don’t use this in Jamaica. I don’t know anyone in the USA either that uses this. Everybody uses Skype and if you now have a netbook and Internet, you should be using Skype for your pc to pc calls since it is FREE instead of wanting Claro to add that service.
As for PC to Cell, you can send text messages but not make voice calls. I assume this is because they want you to buy a phone or there is some technical hurdle because it makes sense to me to not have to subsidize a handset and still sell minutes to people.
I will ask them.
January 21st, 2010 at 8:59 pm
david, what the policy say on the modem is that voice calls are restricted. Ofcourse they can’t know if i make a pc cal when i have it but thats what they say.
matbe the reason they say that is because you could use more megabytes when making a call. I really dont know how correct i am on that statement.
I’ve heard about this skype thing. i really should download it and check it out
January 25th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I DO AGREE WITH TONI, ABOUT CLARO HAVING TEH BEST PACKAGES…..HOWEVER MY LAPTOP IS WINDOWS 7 64BIT WHICH IS NOT COMPATABLE WITH THEIR MODEM!!!! CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE NEXT BEST THING SO THAT I CAN BE ABLE TO GET THE INTERNET ON MY LABTOP WITHOUT PAYING AN ARM AND LEG!!!
January 26th, 2010 at 12:02 am
subscribe for the claro netbook. thats the next best thing
January 27th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I bought my Claro Nokia modem and I have been getting Very slow speeds am talking about EDGE speed. I don’t know what the problem is. I called my Claro sales representative and she told me that my computer memory is probably low. So am gonna try it and let you guys know.
January 31st, 2010 at 12:45 am