Jersey Telecom
Encyclopedia
JT Global is the former monopoly incumbent operator in the Bailiwick of Jersey. Jersey is incorporated into the UK National Telephone Numbering Plan area codes of +44 1534 for landlines and +44 7797 for Jersey Telecom mobiles, +44 7700 for Cable and Wireless mobiles and +44 7829 for Jersey Airtel mobiles. It is not connected to Jersey Post
, the island's postal service.
was opened in Jersey
in 1888 by the Western Counties and South Wales Telephone Company but the service was suspended in 1891. A telephone number first featured in a Jersey Times and British Press advert – H Elliot’s Springfield Nursery & 34 King Street Telephone No 18 – on 18 August 1888. The exchange which was installed on the first floor of 66 Bath Street on the corner of Minden Place was taken over in 1895 when the company was incorporated into the National Telephone Company
(NTC) and is very close to the present day main exchange building in Saint Helier
. This exchange was moved to 2 New Street in 1901. The Jersey exchange network was taken over in 1912 by the British General Post Office (GPO) when the NTC licence expired, and then comprised some 14 magneto exchanges and 1,313 subscribers. The GPO offered the system to the States of Jersey
but the offer was declined. The GPO managed the system until it was again offered to and then bought by the States of Jersey in 1923 for £32,000 (approximately £1.3M today), and named the States Telephone Department. On takeover there were still 14 exchanges with a total of 1,598 subscribers. The Post Office awarded the States a 30 year licence with a royalty of 10% of revenue per annum. The first Engineer Manager was Alfred Rosling Bennett
MIEE, a renowned telephone engineer who had previously assisted the States of Guernsey
and Kingston-upon-Hull Corporation set up their telephone systems. Off island communications continued to be operated by the GPO.
The St Helier magneto exchange, based at New Street, St Helier, was replaced in 1926 by a new CB1 type exchange installed in a new building in Minden Place in 1926 and renamed Central exchange. This exchange also subsumed Samarès exchange at the same time. St Mary's
exchange was merged with St Ouen's
exchange in 1927. Exchanges at Five Oaks, Trinity
, Gorey
, St Aubin
and Millbrook were converted from magneto to CB10 during 1938, some moving to new buildings at the same time.
The only communications off-island were via telegraph cables from 1858, when the Channel Island Telegraph Company opened the first telegraph cable to the Isle of Portland
via Guernsey
and Alderney
, up until 1931. In 1931 the GPO converted the former German Borkum
– Azores
telegraph cable that had been cut and diverted to serve Jersey via Guernsey and Dartmouth
in 1914 for military signals, to a single telephone voice channel connected via Guernsey and Exeter
to London. This followed the decision to close the military telegraph circuit from the UK to Rennes
via St Malo in Brittany. This cable was increased in capacity through the use of multiplex equipment to two circuits by 1933, then a third was added in 1935. By 1936 five circuits were available between the islands and six circuits from Guernsey to the UK, three being provided by high frequency wireless
circuits, at the time the longest distance circuits in use anywhere. A new submarine cable from Dartmouth to Jersey via Guernsey was laid by the GPO in the summer of 1939 this provided 12 multiplexed channels which were shared with Guernsey in addition to the wireless circuits. The provision of this new cable necessitated the construction of a separate repeater station at Trinity Gardens, St Helier to accommodate the multiplex equipment. In 1940 the War Office
decided to install a second cable to serve the British Expeditionary Force
in France in case the cables in the north English Channel
were cut. A further cable between Fliquet and Pirou, Normandy was installed providing a 1 + 9 multiplexed circuits with equipment provided by Siemens
Brothers. Although the Jersey UK section was put into service briefly, the German invasion prevented the French circuits from being used beyond basic testing.
In 1940, during the German Occupation of the Channel Islands
, all communication with the outside world was stopped except under licence from the occupation forces. Communications to France were restored by the Germans after the cables were severed by the departing British forces and GPO engineers. The German army took over as many as 2000 of the lines and cables in the network but the civilian exchanges were allowed to continue in operation.
to Grève D'Azette and in 1968 Tucton Bridge to Grève D'Azette. A further analogue multiplex repeated submarine cable from Bournemouth to Grève D'Azette was added jointly by the Telecommunications Board and recently branded British Telecom in 1982 after the takeover of the trunk system by the States of Jersey in 1973.
The telephone services experienced a post-war boom for demand and it quickly became apparent that the existing exchange network was not sufficient. It was decided to rationalize the network and reduce the number of switches. Strangely, it was decided to continue with manual switchboards. The first exchanges to be converted were St Ouen and St Peter
which were amalgamated to form Western exchange. The equipment at this exchange was supplied by Ericsson
's of Beeston (later Plessey
) and was an export cancellation, having originally been destined for Ethiopia. Northern Exchange which absorbed Sion, Trinity, St John and St Lawrence
exchanges, was opened in 1951, Southern exchange which replaced St Aubin's exchange (La Moye was absorbed into St Aubin's exchange in 1946), in 1952 and Eastern exchange absorbing Five Oaks and Gorey (La Rocque exchange having been absorbed into Gorey in April 1946) in 1955. A relief exchange for Central was opened directly opposite in Lyric Hall, Cattle Street in 1953. all these exchanges were of the CB10 type supplied by GEC Telecommunications of Coventry
. Later, on the opening of Central automatic exchange, the '-ern' suffix was removed because of the potential for confusion over poor transmission lines.
Jersey's first automatic Strowger exchange a GEC SE50 Type (otherwise the GPO 4000 Type) was finally brought into operation on 1 November 1959 with a capacity for 9,000 lines. The new automatic exchange absorbed Millbrook exchange on 30 March 1960. Automated information services were introduced in 1960 providing subscribers with Mail Boat arrival data and a Daily Diary service, a Speaking clock
service was introduced in 1964 using a system provided by Ericsson of Beeston. Subscriber Trunk Dialling
(STD) was introduced in Jersey in 1966 which meant that most UK calls could now be dialled direct instead of having to go through an operator
. The same year South exchange was converted to automatic working with a further GEC supplied Strowger switch fitted with GEC proprietary dust proofing, an 'improvement' later abandoned as unsuccessful. Between 1968 and 1969 public telephone kiosks were converted to the GPO pay on answer (POA) phone box type to enable STD.
On 1 January 1973 the States of Jersey took over the trunk exchange and cable network from the Post Office Telephones and assumed a monopoly for the supply of telecommunications services on the island under the Telecommunications (Jersey) Law 1972. This followed on from the takeover of postal services in 1969 after the Harold Wilson
government's restructuring of the GPO. The maintenance of the postal telegraph services was taken over by the newly formed States Telecommunications Board.
Automatic exchanges were also commissioned at the East and North of the Island in 1975 but of the ITT
Italian subsidiary FACE Standard Pentaconta crossbar switch
type. This new equipment could accept tone dialling and allowed the introduction of telephones with keypads instead of a dial. Two further Philips
PRX205 electronic exchanges were introduced in 1975 in Central as a relief exchange to the Strowger unit and 1976 at West due to a shortage of lines on the Ericsson of Beeston CB switchboard.
1976 also saw the introduction of International Subscriber Dialling
(ISD) enabling local subscribers to dial direct to over 250 million telephones in 26 countries. However, ISD was not available from coin boxes until July 1982 when POA boxes were replaced with Post Office CT22B type electronic payphones. In 1979 the Board introduced a Motorola
single channel radio paging system, which was upgraded to a two channel system. It is now operated by the Jersey Airport
Department of Electronics.
exchanges island-wide. This computer-controlled system had been developed for British Telecom and had the obvious advantage of allowing Jersey to be completely compatible with the UK network. 1983 saw the 60,000th telephone connected in Jersey which showed a 20,000 increase in just 7 years. All exchanges were replaced with System X or System X remote concentrators by 1994.
In 1984 the States Telecommunications Board relaxed its monopoly and began to allow some privately purchased equipment to be connected to the network subject to BABT type approval to ensure that the service was not put at any risk. This was further relaxed in 1996 to include PABX and public pay-phones.
During the same period extensive developments were made to the communication links out of the Island. Microwave
links were put in place between Jersey and both the UK (IOW) and France to ensure service in the unlikely event of a repeat of a breakdown of all the main cable communication links which occurred during 1977 and 1979. 1989 saw the introduction of the first fibre optic cable between Guernsey
and England with the second fibre optic cable running from Jersey to Goonhilly in the UK put in place in 1994. This cable was at one time the longest unrepeated optical fibre sea cable in the world. Both cables can carry more than 32,000 simultaneous calls. Jersey Telecom operates an SDH
ring service over these two cables.
In 2000 the Jersey Electricity Company installed a second submarine electricity supply cable to Surville
in France and also from Jersey to the Guernsey Electricity Company at Barkers Quarry forming the Channel Islands Electric Grid. This new cable contained a number of fibre optic telecommunications cables massively increasing the off-island capacity. Irrefutable Rights of Use have since been purchased from the CIEG by Newtel Solutions, Cable and Wireless and Jersey Telecom Limited (JT) to enable use as telecommunications circuits.
In November 2006 JT announced that it was to install a new high capacity optical submarine cable from Dartmouth to L'Ancresse Bay on the north west tip of Guernsey. The cable was commissioned in May 2008 and connects to Jersey and France over the CIEG cables maintaining the SDH ring. This cable, called Project Liberty by JT, will augment the existing submarine cables and is in direct response to a similar cable installed by Cable and Wireless between Porthcurno
and L'Ancresse Bay, Guernsey and Saints Bay, Guernsey and Lannion
in Brittany for its Project Hugo initiative.
In April 2010 JT relaunched its Next Generation Networking
(NGN) programme which had run into technical difficulties the previous autumn. The equipment supplied by UTStarcom
will eventually replace its System X exchanges and its existing Marconi Electronic Systems
Multi-Service Access Nodes (MSAN
s). This move will enable the company to lower cost and to add new NGN features to its services.
In 2010 the company announced a new five year growth strategy setting out how it plans to grow the business, develop new opportunities for employees, and continue to be a valuable asset for the States of Jersey
In 2010 and 2011 JT began trialing Europe’s first residential gigabit broadband connection at two Jersey locations (Castle Quay and Portelet), has announced its first major acquisition (ekit.com) and opened its sixth CI based data centre.
In September 2011, Jersey Telecom re-branded as JT.
campus type system (Jersey is small enough for such a system) over 600 pager
s were issued in the first year of operation. It was upgraded in 1986 to a two channel system and in 1987 text messaging was added. This service is now operated by Jersey Airport
under its telecommunications licence. Jersey Airport also operates the island's TETRA
mobile network on behalf of the local emergency services.
Jersey Telecom's first analogue mobile service was introduced in 1987 in collaboration with Cellnet (now O2
) and ran until June 1999. The network supported over 3,000 local customers by the time Jersey Telecom introduced its own GSM digital network at the end of 1994. GPRS was made available under the brand name Pepper during 2003 and MMS messaging in 2004.
In 2005 the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority
(JCRA), the Jersey Telecommunications Regulator, in cooperation with Ofcom
, the UK telecommunications authority with responsibility for spectrum allocation in the Channel Islands
under the Communications Act 2003
and Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006
extended by Order in Council, allotted a 3G spectrum license to Jersey Telecom and 2G
and 3G
spectrum licenses to Cable and Wireless Jersey, Jersey Airtel and COLT Telecom Group plc to operate mobile services in Jersey. Jersey Telecom introduced its 3G services in July 2006.
Jersey Telecom are presently providing a 14.4 M bits/sec service using high speed download packet access.
On 13 September 2006 Cable & Wireless
Jersey introduced its Sure mobile network operating both 2G and 3G services.
In May 2007 Jersey Airtel announced a partnership with Vodafone
and launched a new brand Airtel-Vodafone
in preparation for its network launch. The Airtel-Vodafone network went live on 28 June 2007. Airtel-Vodafone now also offers a wireless landline product enabling users to have 01534 numbers connected through its mobile network. This product does not permit roaming outside the Channel Islands.
called "Wave Telecom", it is very similar in many ways to Jersey Telecom. Their Website quotes Wave Telecom as being "A wholly owned subsidiary of the Jersey Telecom Group, Wave Telecom Limited was granted licences by the Office of Utility Regulation to operate fixed and mobile telecommunications services to, from and within the Bailiwick of Guernsey.
Wave provides a comprehensive range of fixed and mobile communications services to business and residential customers.
On 1 January 2003 the States of Jersey's Telecommunications Board was corporatized and the telephone system was passed into a limited liability
company, Jersey Telecom Group Limited, with 100% of the share capital retained by the States, which was granted a Class III licence by the JCRA to operate a telecommunications system in the island. At the same time the new Telecommunications (Jersey) Law 2002 abolished the States' monopoly on the provision of telecommunications in Jersey allowing full competition for the first time since the days of the NTC.
The JCRA has actively promoted competition in Jersey granting a Class II licence to Newtel Solutions
in January 2003 which provides cable television services in Jersey and data services such as leased line
s and ISP
services in both Jersey and Guernsey for the business and residential markets.
In December 2003 Cable and Wireless Jersey was granted a Class II licence to provide fixed and mobile telephony
services. In 2005, the JCRA also granted Jersey Airtel (a subsidiary of Bharti), now trading as Airtel-Vodafone, a Class II licence to provide mobile telecommunications services in the island. Airtel-Vodafone launched geographic number fixed-mobile services in 2009. The JCRA has also licensed a number of Class I operators to provide ISP
and related services.
) and other local providers. Broadband ADSL
Internet access is also offered by both Jersey Telecom, and Newtel Solutions as a wholesale
reseller of the Jersey Telecom Rapid branded service. Some UK providers, such as AOL, are only available as dialup because of the cost of backhaul to the UK Point of Presence
. There are also leased line
offerings starting at 2 Mbit/s and an on-demand ISDN
Internet access plan. Jersey Telecom also offers an SDSL
wholesale and retail service range.
Jersey Telecom offers its ADSL services both to wholesale and retail consumers, the majority of which take the 2 Mbit/s downlink and 384 Kbit/s uplink
configuration. The contention ratio
s vary between its various service offerings from 20:1 (business) up to 50:1 (residential), matching those of BT. Its SDSL service has a standard 10:1 contention ratio. In September 2009 Jersey Telecom also launched 4 Mbit/s and 8 Mbit/s options for its ADSL range of wholesale and retail services.
In 2008 Airtel-Vodafone
, and later Sure, entered the broadband market using a 3G
USB
‘dongle
’. The service is competitively priced and is nomadic, requiring no fixed connection. The present service offers up to 3·6 Mbit/s. Jersey Airtel introduced a Pre-Paid version in January 2009. In April Jersey Telecom announced its 3G 7·2Mb/s mobile broadband service.
In September 2009 Sure also entered the retail broadband market with offers of bundled services for its mobile subscribers. Newtel
and Airtel-Vodafone
also entered into an agreement to bundle mobile and broadband services.
The process was again launched in February 2008 with a Directed implementation date of 1 December 2008. The supplier for the system is the Dutch company PortingXS, which was selected after a competitive tender process. The All Call Query system was installed in cooperation with the Guernsey telecommunications regulator the OUR and the mobile operators in Guernsey. While the system is jointly operated by companies on both islands porting of numbers between the islands is not permitted. The system is intended to be compatible with fixed number portability including porting to VoIP providers. The service was opened as planned and in its first year of operation more than 5,000 successful ports were completed, representing about 5% of active SIMs.
In 2006 the States of Jersey
Council of Ministers proposed the sale of Jersey Telecom Limited. The States opened up this proposal to public consultation and commissioned reports from UK Telecommunications Consultants Analysys Mason, the JCRA
and JT on the proposed sale. In addition the States' Scrutiny Panel also examined the issues surrounding the proposed sale. These reports were submitted to the States in February 2007 and tabled for discussion. After a brief debate the States decided to conduct a cost/benefit analysis on the proposed optional disposal configurations, including the break-up of the company. However, on 29 January 2008, following comments in the Scrutiny report and market uncertainty, the Minister for Treasury and Resources decided to withdraw the proposition and defer any debate for "at least 3 years". In the meantime a review of the JCRA's powers under Telecommunications (Jersey) Law 2002 was recommended and this was undertaken during 2008 by consultants LECG.
In November 2009 the JT board announced its restructuring plans that would require 20% to 25% reduction in workforce, blaming competition and the economic environment for the necessary efficiency changes. Up to 80 posts would be axed in addition to the 35 already announced through a voluntary redundancy scheme. The company also closed its Navitas subsidiary that had provided mobile connectivity to cruise liners as part of the restructuring. At the same time it announced that its CEO would be replaced early in 2010, the incumbent, Bob Lawrence, who had been at the helm of JT since 1991 would step down in favour of Graeme Millar, formerly Chief Commercial Officer of Mobile TeleSystems
, the Russian mobile operator.
Jersey Post
Jersey Post is the licensed universal service provider of mail service for the bailiwick of Jersey.- History :Jersey Post was established by the Post Office Law 1969, in 1969 as a result of an Order in Council which enabled the Crown dependencies to establish independent postal services...
, the island's postal service.
History
19th century to the Occupation
The first telephone exchangeTelephone exchange
In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls...
was opened in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
in 1888 by the Western Counties and South Wales Telephone Company but the service was suspended in 1891. A telephone number first featured in a Jersey Times and British Press advert – H Elliot’s Springfield Nursery & 34 King Street Telephone No 18 – on 18 August 1888. The exchange which was installed on the first floor of 66 Bath Street on the corner of Minden Place was taken over in 1895 when the company was incorporated into the National Telephone Company
National Telephone Company
The National Telephone Company was a British telephone company from 1881 until 1911 which brought together smaller local companies in the early years of the telephone...
(NTC) and is very close to the present day main exchange building in Saint Helier
Saint Helier
Saint Helier is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St. Helier has a population of about 28,000, roughly 31.2% of the total population of Jersey, and is the capital of the Island . The urban area of the parish of St...
. This exchange was moved to 2 New Street in 1901. The Jersey exchange network was taken over in 1912 by the British General Post Office (GPO) when the NTC licence expired, and then comprised some 14 magneto exchanges and 1,313 subscribers. The GPO offered the system to the States of Jersey
States of Jersey
The States of Jersey is the parliament and government of Jersey.The Assembly of the States of Jersey has exercised legislative powers since 1771, when law-making power was transferred from the Royal Court of Jersey....
but the offer was declined. The GPO managed the system until it was again offered to and then bought by the States of Jersey in 1923 for £32,000 (approximately £1.3M today), and named the States Telephone Department. On takeover there were still 14 exchanges with a total of 1,598 subscribers. The Post Office awarded the States a 30 year licence with a royalty of 10% of revenue per annum. The first Engineer Manager was Alfred Rosling Bennett
Alfred Rosling Bennett
Alfred Rosling Bennett was an English electrical engineer.-Career:A. R. Bennett studied at Belle Vue Academy, Greenwich, London. He then took a job with the Indian government telegraph department.He returned to Britain in 1873 and was responsible for pioneering work in incandescent electric...
MIEE, a renowned telephone engineer who had previously assisted the States of Guernsey
States of Guernsey
The States of Guernsey is the parliament of the island of Guernsey. Some laws and ordinances approved by the States of Guernsey also apply to Alderney and Sark as "Bailiwick-wide legislation" with the consent of the governments of those islands...
and Kingston-upon-Hull Corporation set up their telephone systems. Off island communications continued to be operated by the GPO.
The St Helier magneto exchange, based at New Street, St Helier, was replaced in 1926 by a new CB1 type exchange installed in a new building in Minden Place in 1926 and renamed Central exchange. This exchange also subsumed Samarès exchange at the same time. St Mary's
Saint Mary, Jersey
-External links:**...
exchange was merged with St Ouen's
Saint Ouen, Jersey
-Cueillettes:Unlike the other parishes of Jersey, the subdivisions of this parish are not named vingtaines, but cueillettes . Vingteniers are still elected, however, in the cueillettes.*La Petite Cueillette*La Grande Cueillette...
exchange in 1927. Exchanges at Five Oaks, Trinity
Trinity, Jersey
Trinity is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is in the north east of the island.Trinity has the reputation of being the most rural of Jersey's parishes, being the third-largest parish by surface area with the third-smallest population. The parish covers 6,817 vergées...
, Gorey
Gorey, Jersey
Gorey is a village in the parishes of St. Martin and Grouville on the east coast of Jersey. It is one of the three main harbours of the island....
, St Aubin
Saint Aubin, Jersey
Saint Aubin is a port in the Channel Island of Jersey. It opens out to a bay of the Gulf of Saint-Malo.Originally a fishing village at the opposite end of Saint Aubin's Bay from the town of Saint Helier, Saint Aubin is now the hub of the parish of St. Brelade. Its name refers to Saint Aubin of...
and Millbrook were converted from magneto to CB10 during 1938, some moving to new buildings at the same time.
The only communications off-island were via telegraph cables from 1858, when the Channel Island Telegraph Company opened the first telegraph cable to the Isle of Portland
Isle of Portland
The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...
via Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
and Alderney
Alderney
Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...
, up until 1931. In 1931 the GPO converted the former German Borkum
Borkum
Borkum is an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany.-Geography:Borkum is bordered to the west by the Westerems strait , to the east by the Osterems strait, to the north by the North Sea, and to the south by the Wadden Sea...
– Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
telegraph cable that had been cut and diverted to serve Jersey via Guernsey and Dartmouth
Dartmouth, Devon
Dartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...
in 1914 for military signals, to a single telephone voice channel connected via Guernsey and Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
to London. This followed the decision to close the military telegraph circuit from the UK to Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
via St Malo in Brittany. This cable was increased in capacity through the use of multiplex equipment to two circuits by 1933, then a third was added in 1935. By 1936 five circuits were available between the islands and six circuits from Guernsey to the UK, three being provided by high frequency wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
circuits, at the time the longest distance circuits in use anywhere. A new submarine cable from Dartmouth to Jersey via Guernsey was laid by the GPO in the summer of 1939 this provided 12 multiplexed channels which were shared with Guernsey in addition to the wireless circuits. The provision of this new cable necessitated the construction of a separate repeater station at Trinity Gardens, St Helier to accommodate the multiplex equipment. In 1940 the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
decided to install a second cable to serve the British Expeditionary Force
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....
in France in case the cables in the north English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
were cut. A further cable between Fliquet and Pirou, Normandy was installed providing a 1 + 9 multiplexed circuits with equipment provided by Siemens
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
Brothers. Although the Jersey UK section was put into service briefly, the German invasion prevented the French circuits from being used beyond basic testing.
In 1940, during the German Occupation of the Channel Islands
Occupation of the Channel Islands
The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi Germany for much of World War II, from 30 June 1940 until the liberation on 9 May 1945. The Channel Islands are two British Crown dependencies and include the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey as well as the smaller islands of Alderney and Sark...
, all communication with the outside world was stopped except under licence from the occupation forces. Communications to France were restored by the Germans after the cables were severed by the departing British forces and GPO engineers. The German army took over as many as 2000 of the lines and cables in the network but the civilian exchanges were allowed to continue in operation.
1950s to 1980s
After the war trunk services were rapidly restored and telegraph services were connected in days using military wireless equipment. The cables were quickly picked up and the pre-war circuits put back into service. The GPO upgraded the cable capacity in 1952 and opened in the spring of 1953 a new trunk manual board in an extension over the Telephone Department offices. The GPO installed new cables to cater for increased demand in 1958 Tucton Bridge, BournemouthBournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
to Grève D'Azette and in 1968 Tucton Bridge to Grève D'Azette. A further analogue multiplex repeated submarine cable from Bournemouth to Grève D'Azette was added jointly by the Telecommunications Board and recently branded British Telecom in 1982 after the takeover of the trunk system by the States of Jersey in 1973.
The telephone services experienced a post-war boom for demand and it quickly became apparent that the existing exchange network was not sufficient. It was decided to rationalize the network and reduce the number of switches. Strangely, it was decided to continue with manual switchboards. The first exchanges to be converted were St Ouen and St Peter
Saint Peter, Jersey
Saint Peter is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is in the west central part of the island. It is the only parish with two separate coastlines, stretching from St. Ouen's Bay in the west to St. Aubin's Bay in the south, and thereby cutting St. Brelade off from other...
which were amalgamated to form Western exchange. The equipment at this exchange was supplied by Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
's of Beeston (later Plessey
Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after the second world war by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies...
) and was an export cancellation, having originally been destined for Ethiopia. Northern Exchange which absorbed Sion, Trinity, St John and St Lawrence
Saint Lawrence, Jersey
Saint Lawrence is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. The parish covers 5,258 vergées and occupies the centre of the Island....
exchanges, was opened in 1951, Southern exchange which replaced St Aubin's exchange (La Moye was absorbed into St Aubin's exchange in 1946), in 1952 and Eastern exchange absorbing Five Oaks and Gorey (La Rocque exchange having been absorbed into Gorey in April 1946) in 1955. A relief exchange for Central was opened directly opposite in Lyric Hall, Cattle Street in 1953. all these exchanges were of the CB10 type supplied by GEC Telecommunications of Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
. Later, on the opening of Central automatic exchange, the '-ern' suffix was removed because of the potential for confusion over poor transmission lines.
Jersey's first automatic Strowger exchange a GEC SE50 Type (otherwise the GPO 4000 Type) was finally brought into operation on 1 November 1959 with a capacity for 9,000 lines. The new automatic exchange absorbed Millbrook exchange on 30 March 1960. Automated information services were introduced in 1960 providing subscribers with Mail Boat arrival data and a Daily Diary service, a Speaking clock
Speaking clock
A speaking clock service is a recorded or simulated human voice service, usually accessed by telephone, that gives the correct time. The first telephone speaking clock service was introduced in France, in association with the Paris Observatory on 14 February 1933.The format of the service is...
service was introduced in 1964 using a system provided by Ericsson of Beeston. Subscriber Trunk Dialling
Subscriber trunk dialling
Subscriber trunk dialling is a term for a telephone system allowing subscribers to dial trunk calls without operator assistance.- Terminology :...
(STD) was introduced in Jersey in 1966 which meant that most UK calls could now be dialled direct instead of having to go through an operator
Telephone operator
A telephone operator is either* a person who provides assistance to a telephone caller, usually in the placing of operator assisted telephone calls such as calls from a pay phone, collect calls , calls which are billed to a credit card, station-to-station and person-to-person calls, and certain...
. The same year South exchange was converted to automatic working with a further GEC supplied Strowger switch fitted with GEC proprietary dust proofing, an 'improvement' later abandoned as unsuccessful. Between 1968 and 1969 public telephone kiosks were converted to the GPO pay on answer (POA) phone box type to enable STD.
On 1 January 1973 the States of Jersey took over the trunk exchange and cable network from the Post Office Telephones and assumed a monopoly for the supply of telecommunications services on the island under the Telecommunications (Jersey) Law 1972. This followed on from the takeover of postal services in 1969 after the Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
government's restructuring of the GPO. The maintenance of the postal telegraph services was taken over by the newly formed States Telecommunications Board.
Automatic exchanges were also commissioned at the East and North of the Island in 1975 but of the ITT
ITT Corporation
ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control...
Italian subsidiary FACE Standard Pentaconta crossbar switch
Crossbar switch
In electronics, a crossbar switch is a switch connecting multiple inputs to multiple outputs in a matrix manner....
type. This new equipment could accept tone dialling and allowed the introduction of telephones with keypads instead of a dial. Two further Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
PRX205 electronic exchanges were introduced in 1975 in Central as a relief exchange to the Strowger unit and 1976 at West due to a shortage of lines on the Ericsson of Beeston CB switchboard.
1976 also saw the introduction of International Subscriber Dialling
International Subscriber Dialling
International direct dialing or international subscriber dialing is the process of an international telephone call being placed by the caller rather than by an operator. The term international subscriber dialing was used in the United Kingdom and Australia until the terminology was changed to...
(ISD) enabling local subscribers to dial direct to over 250 million telephones in 26 countries. However, ISD was not available from coin boxes until July 1982 when POA boxes were replaced with Post Office CT22B type electronic payphones. In 1979 the Board introduced a Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
single channel radio paging system, which was upgraded to a two channel system. It is now operated by the Jersey Airport
Jersey Airport
-Busiest routes:Some airlines offer services between Jersey and other destinations with an intermediate stop at Guernsey. There are also periodic charter flights to European holiday destinations, Madeira and ski destinations operated by airlines such as Aurigny Air Services, Europe Airpost, Palmair...
Department of Electronics.
1980s to today
The 80s were growth years for the Telecommunications Board despite the recession which hit the United Kingdom. Many new services were introduced during this time, the most significant of which was the introduction of System XSystem X (telephony)
System X was the name of the UK's first national digital telephone exchange system.-Development:System X was developed by the UK Post Office , GEC, Plessey, and Standard Telephones and Cables and first shown in public in 1979 at the Telecom 79 exhibition in Geneva Switzerland...
exchanges island-wide. This computer-controlled system had been developed for British Telecom and had the obvious advantage of allowing Jersey to be completely compatible with the UK network. 1983 saw the 60,000th telephone connected in Jersey which showed a 20,000 increase in just 7 years. All exchanges were replaced with System X or System X remote concentrators by 1994.
In 1984 the States Telecommunications Board relaxed its monopoly and began to allow some privately purchased equipment to be connected to the network subject to BABT type approval to ensure that the service was not put at any risk. This was further relaxed in 1996 to include PABX and public pay-phones.
During the same period extensive developments were made to the communication links out of the Island. Microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
links were put in place between Jersey and both the UK (IOW) and France to ensure service in the unlikely event of a repeat of a breakdown of all the main cable communication links which occurred during 1977 and 1979. 1989 saw the introduction of the first fibre optic cable between Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
and England with the second fibre optic cable running from Jersey to Goonhilly in the UK put in place in 1994. This cable was at one time the longest unrepeated optical fibre sea cable in the world. Both cables can carry more than 32,000 simultaneous calls. Jersey Telecom operates an SDH
SDH
SDH may refer to:* Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, in telecommunications* Secure Digital Host Controller, in computing* Saradhna, a railway station in India* The Shubnikov-De Haas effect, also see Fermi surface...
ring service over these two cables.
In 2000 the Jersey Electricity Company installed a second submarine electricity supply cable to Surville
Surville
-People:* Jean-François-Marie de Surville , a French trader and navigator-Places:* Surville, Calvados, a commune in the Calvados département, France* Surville, Eure, a commune in the Eure département, France...
in France and also from Jersey to the Guernsey Electricity Company at Barkers Quarry forming the Channel Islands Electric Grid. This new cable contained a number of fibre optic telecommunications cables massively increasing the off-island capacity. Irrefutable Rights of Use have since been purchased from the CIEG by Newtel Solutions, Cable and Wireless and Jersey Telecom Limited (JT) to enable use as telecommunications circuits.
In November 2006 JT announced that it was to install a new high capacity optical submarine cable from Dartmouth to L'Ancresse Bay on the north west tip of Guernsey. The cable was commissioned in May 2008 and connects to Jersey and France over the CIEG cables maintaining the SDH ring. This cable, called Project Liberty by JT, will augment the existing submarine cables and is in direct response to a similar cable installed by Cable and Wireless between Porthcurno
Porthcurno
Porthcurno is a small village in the parish of St. Levan located in a valley on the south coast of the county of Cornwall, England in the United Kingdom. It is approximately to the west of the market town of Penzance and about from Land's End, the most westerly point of the English mainland...
and L'Ancresse Bay, Guernsey and Saints Bay, Guernsey and Lannion
Lannion
Lannion is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a subpréfecture of Côtes-d'Armor, the capital of Trégor and the center of an urban area of almost 60,000 inhabitants.-Population:...
in Brittany for its Project Hugo initiative.
In April 2010 JT relaunched its Next Generation Networking
Next Generation Networking
Next-generation network is a broad term used to describe key architectural evolutions in telecommunication core and access networks. The general idea behind the NGN is that one network transports all information and services by encapsulating these into packets, similar to those used on the...
(NGN) programme which had run into technical difficulties the previous autumn. The equipment supplied by UTStarcom
UTStarcom
UTStarcom is a Fortune 1000 company that specializes in IP-based networking products for telecommunications companies and service providers. Its core markets are multimedia communications and broadband, including IP and entertainment , next generation broadband networks and optical network solutions...
will eventually replace its System X exchanges and its existing Marconi Electronic Systems
Marconi Electronic Systems
Marconi Electronic Systems , or GEC-Marconi as it was until 1998, was the defence arm of The General Electric Company . It was demerged from GEC and acquired by British Aerospace on November 30, 1999 to form BAE Systems...
Multi-Service Access Nodes (MSAN
MSAN
A Multi-service access Node also known as a Multi-service access gateway is a device typically installed in a telephone exchange which connects customers' telephone lines to the core network, to provide telephone, ISDN, and broadband such as DSL all from a single platform.Prior to the deployment...
s). This move will enable the company to lower cost and to add new NGN features to its services.
In 2010 the company announced a new five year growth strategy setting out how it plans to grow the business, develop new opportunities for employees, and continue to be a valuable asset for the States of Jersey
In 2010 and 2011 JT began trialing Europe’s first residential gigabit broadband connection at two Jersey locations (Castle Quay and Portelet), has announced its first major acquisition (ekit.com) and opened its sixth CI based data centre.
In September 2011, Jersey Telecom re-branded as JT.
Mobile networks
In 1979 Jersey's first radio paging network was introduced using a MotorolaMotorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
campus type system (Jersey is small enough for such a system) over 600 pager
Pager
A pager is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then requested to call...
s were issued in the first year of operation. It was upgraded in 1986 to a two channel system and in 1987 text messaging was added. This service is now operated by Jersey Airport
Jersey Airport
-Busiest routes:Some airlines offer services between Jersey and other destinations with an intermediate stop at Guernsey. There are also periodic charter flights to European holiday destinations, Madeira and ski destinations operated by airlines such as Aurigny Air Services, Europe Airpost, Palmair...
under its telecommunications licence. Jersey Airport also operates the island's TETRA
Tetra
thumb|right|250px|Pristella tetra — [[Pristella maxillaris]].thumb|right|250px|Golden Pristella tetra, a [[morph |morph]] of [[Pristella maxillaris]].thumb|right|250px|[[Silvertip tetra]] — Hasemania nana....
mobile network on behalf of the local emergency services.
Jersey Telecom's first analogue mobile service was introduced in 1987 in collaboration with Cellnet (now O2
O2 plc
Telefónica Europe plc is a European broadband and telecommunications company that trades as O2 . The company originated as a collection of worldwide telecommunications companies, known in the later half of the 1990s as BT Wireless, and a global mobile data business known then as Genie Internet,...
) and ran until June 1999. The network supported over 3,000 local customers by the time Jersey Telecom introduced its own GSM digital network at the end of 1994. GPRS was made available under the brand name Pepper during 2003 and MMS messaging in 2004.
In 2005 the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority
Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority
The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority is the general competition, postal and telecommunications regulatory authority for Jersey, a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France....
(JCRA), the Jersey Telecommunications Regulator, in cooperation with Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
, the UK telecommunications authority with responsibility for spectrum allocation in the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
under the Communications Act 2003
Communications Act 2003
The Communications Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It gave regulation body Ofcom its full powers. Among other measures, it introduced legal recognition of Community Radio and paved the way for full-time Community Radio services in the UK; as well as controversially...
and Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006
Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006
The Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This Act repealed the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949....
extended by Order in Council, allotted a 3G spectrum license to Jersey Telecom and 2G
2G
2G is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. Second generation 2G cellular telecom networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by Radiolinja in 1991...
and 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
spectrum licenses to Cable and Wireless Jersey, Jersey Airtel and COLT Telecom Group plc to operate mobile services in Jersey. Jersey Telecom introduced its 3G services in July 2006.
Jersey Telecom are presently providing a 14.4 M bits/sec service using high speed download packet access.
On 13 September 2006 Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC is a global telecommunications company headquartered in Bracknell, United Kingdom. Cable & Wireless specialises in providing communication networks and services to large corporates, governments, carrier customers and resellers...
Jersey introduced its Sure mobile network operating both 2G and 3G services.
In May 2007 Jersey Airtel announced a partnership with Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
and launched a new brand Airtel-Vodafone
Airtel-Vodafone
Airtel-Vodafone is a mobile phone provider in Jersey and Guernsey, and marks the partnership of two of the world’s most important telecommunications companies...
in preparation for its network launch. The Airtel-Vodafone network went live on 28 June 2007. Airtel-Vodafone now also offers a wireless landline product enabling users to have 01534 numbers connected through its mobile network. This product does not permit roaming outside the Channel Islands.
Wave Telecom
Jersey Telecom also offers a service in the Baliwick of GuernseyGuernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
called "Wave Telecom", it is very similar in many ways to Jersey Telecom. Their Website quotes Wave Telecom as being "A wholly owned subsidiary of the Jersey Telecom Group, Wave Telecom Limited was granted licences by the Office of Utility Regulation to operate fixed and mobile telecommunications services to, from and within the Bailiwick of Guernsey.
Wave provides a comprehensive range of fixed and mobile communications services to business and residential customers.
JT Wholesale
The Jersey Telecom Group launched JT Wholesale in 2007 to provide mobile services off-island as part of its diversification strategy. JT Wholesale provides a number of mobile telephony related services including global text messaging services, roaming services and secure data hosting.Competition
On 1 December 2002, the States of Jersey Telecommunications Board announced the launch of Wave Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary operating under a Class II licence from the Guernsey Telecommunications Regulator the Office of Utility Regulation (OUR) as a new telecommunications provider in the Bailiwick of Guernsey.On 1 January 2003 the States of Jersey's Telecommunications Board was corporatized and the telephone system was passed into a limited liability
Limited liability
Limited liability is a concept where by a person's financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a company or partnership with limited liability. If a company with limited liability is sued, then the plaintiffs are suing the company, not its...
company, Jersey Telecom Group Limited, with 100% of the share capital retained by the States, which was granted a Class III licence by the JCRA to operate a telecommunications system in the island. At the same time the new Telecommunications (Jersey) Law 2002 abolished the States' monopoly on the provision of telecommunications in Jersey allowing full competition for the first time since the days of the NTC.
The JCRA has actively promoted competition in Jersey granting a Class II licence to Newtel Solutions
Newtel Solutions
Newtel Solutions is the operator of a cable television network in Jersey, Channel Islands. Newtel Solutions also provides telecommunications services including telephony and broadband....
in January 2003 which provides cable television services in Jersey and data services such as leased line
Leased line
A leased line is a service contract between a provider and a customer, whereby the provider agrees to deliver a symmetric telecommunications line connecting two or more locations in exchange for a monthly rent . It is sometimes known as a 'Private Circuit' or 'Data Line' in the UK or as CDN in Italy...
s and ISP
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
services in both Jersey and Guernsey for the business and residential markets.
In December 2003 Cable and Wireless Jersey was granted a Class II licence to provide fixed and mobile telephony
Mobile telephony
Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Mobile phones connect to a terrestrial cellular network of base stations , whereas satellite phones connect to orbiting satellites...
services. In 2005, the JCRA also granted Jersey Airtel (a subsidiary of Bharti), now trading as Airtel-Vodafone, a Class II licence to provide mobile telecommunications services in the island. Airtel-Vodafone launched geographic number fixed-mobile services in 2009. The JCRA has also licensed a number of Class I operators to provide ISP
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
and related services.
Internet connectivity
Jersey citizens are able to obtain dialup Internet services from Jersey Telecom, LocalDial (now part of Newtel SolutionsNewtel Solutions
Newtel Solutions is the operator of a cable television network in Jersey, Channel Islands. Newtel Solutions also provides telecommunications services including telephony and broadband....
) and other local providers. Broadband ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...
Internet access is also offered by both Jersey Telecom, and Newtel Solutions as a wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
reseller of the Jersey Telecom Rapid branded service. Some UK providers, such as AOL, are only available as dialup because of the cost of backhaul to the UK Point of Presence
Point of presence
A point of presence is an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communications entities. It may include a meet-me-room.In the US, this term became important during the court-ordered breakup of the Bell Telephone system...
. There are also leased line
Leased line
A leased line is a service contract between a provider and a customer, whereby the provider agrees to deliver a symmetric telecommunications line connecting two or more locations in exchange for a monthly rent . It is sometimes known as a 'Private Circuit' or 'Data Line' in the UK or as CDN in Italy...
offerings starting at 2 Mbit/s and an on-demand ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network
Integrated Services Digital Network is a set of communications standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network...
Internet access plan. Jersey Telecom also offers an SDSL
Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Symmetric digital subscriber line can have two meanings:* In the wider sense it is a collection of Internet access technologies based on DSL that offer symmetric bandwidth upstream and downstream...
wholesale and retail service range.
Jersey Telecom offers its ADSL services both to wholesale and retail consumers, the majority of which take the 2 Mbit/s downlink and 384 Kbit/s uplink
Uplink
A telecommunications link is generally one of several types of information transmission paths such as those provided by communication satellites to connect two points on earth.-Uplink:...
configuration. The contention ratio
Contention ratio
In computer networking, the contention ratio is the ratio of the potential maximum demand to the actual bandwidth. The higher the contention ratio, the greater the number of users that may be trying to use the actual bandwidth at any one time and, therefore, the...
s vary between its various service offerings from 20:1 (business) up to 50:1 (residential), matching those of BT. Its SDSL service has a standard 10:1 contention ratio. In September 2009 Jersey Telecom also launched 4 Mbit/s and 8 Mbit/s options for its ADSL range of wholesale and retail services.
In 2008 Airtel-Vodafone
Airtel-Vodafone
Airtel-Vodafone is a mobile phone provider in Jersey and Guernsey, and marks the partnership of two of the world’s most important telecommunications companies...
, and later Sure, entered the broadband market using a 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
USB
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
‘dongle
Dongle
A software protection dongle is a small piece of hardware that plugs into an electrical connector on a computer and serves as an electronic "key" for a piece of software; the program will only run when the dongle is plugged in...
’. The service is competitively priced and is nomadic, requiring no fixed connection. The present service offers up to 3·6 Mbit/s. Jersey Airtel introduced a Pre-Paid version in January 2009. In April Jersey Telecom announced its 3G 7·2Mb/s mobile broadband service.
In September 2009 Sure also entered the retail broadband market with offers of bundled services for its mobile subscribers. Newtel
Newtel Solutions
Newtel Solutions is the operator of a cable television network in Jersey, Channel Islands. Newtel Solutions also provides telecommunications services including telephony and broadband....
and Airtel-Vodafone
Airtel-Vodafone
Airtel-Vodafone is a mobile phone provider in Jersey and Guernsey, and marks the partnership of two of the world’s most important telecommunications companies...
also entered into an agreement to bundle mobile and broadband services.
Mobile number portability
In the summer of 2006 after a full public consultation, the JCRA directed all Jersey mobile telecommunications operators to introduce Number Portability (NP) in order to stimulate innovation and competition in the mobile market. Initially the operators worked together to select an NP provider but in October JT unilaterally withdrew from the process and following a further direction from the JCRA, challenged the NP requirement in the Royal Court of Jersey. However, the action was withdrawn when an out of court agreement was reached with the JCRA to introduce NP concurrently with Guernsey mobile operators in cooperation with the Guernsey telecommunications regulator, the Office of Utility Regulation (OUR).The process was again launched in February 2008 with a Directed implementation date of 1 December 2008. The supplier for the system is the Dutch company PortingXS, which was selected after a competitive tender process. The All Call Query system was installed in cooperation with the Guernsey telecommunications regulator the OUR and the mobile operators in Guernsey. While the system is jointly operated by companies on both islands porting of numbers between the islands is not permitted. The system is intended to be compatible with fixed number portability including porting to VoIP providers. The service was opened as planned and in its first year of operation more than 5,000 successful ports were completed, representing about 5% of active SIMs.
Miscellaneous
The company is sometimes referred to publicly as Telecoms in Jersey, the name by which the former States Telecommunications Board was long known but is now more generally referred to as JT in the telecoms industry and politics.In 2006 the States of Jersey
States of Jersey
The States of Jersey is the parliament and government of Jersey.The Assembly of the States of Jersey has exercised legislative powers since 1771, when law-making power was transferred from the Royal Court of Jersey....
Council of Ministers proposed the sale of Jersey Telecom Limited. The States opened up this proposal to public consultation and commissioned reports from UK Telecommunications Consultants Analysys Mason, the JCRA
Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority
The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority is the general competition, postal and telecommunications regulatory authority for Jersey, a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France....
and JT on the proposed sale. In addition the States' Scrutiny Panel also examined the issues surrounding the proposed sale. These reports were submitted to the States in February 2007 and tabled for discussion. After a brief debate the States decided to conduct a cost/benefit analysis on the proposed optional disposal configurations, including the break-up of the company. However, on 29 January 2008, following comments in the Scrutiny report and market uncertainty, the Minister for Treasury and Resources decided to withdraw the proposition and defer any debate for "at least 3 years". In the meantime a review of the JCRA's powers under Telecommunications (Jersey) Law 2002 was recommended and this was undertaken during 2008 by consultants LECG.
In November 2009 the JT board announced its restructuring plans that would require 20% to 25% reduction in workforce, blaming competition and the economic environment for the necessary efficiency changes. Up to 80 posts would be axed in addition to the 35 already announced through a voluntary redundancy scheme. The company also closed its Navitas subsidiary that had provided mobile connectivity to cruise liners as part of the restructuring. At the same time it announced that its CEO would be replaced early in 2010, the incumbent, Bob Lawrence, who had been at the helm of JT since 1991 would step down in favour of Graeme Millar, formerly Chief Commercial Officer of Mobile TeleSystems
Mobile TeleSystems
MTS is the largest mobile operator in Russia and CIS with over 102,4 million subscribers as of 31 December 2009.Having started in the Moscow license zone in 1994, МТS in 1997 received licenses for further areas and began expansion, later entering other countries of the CIS...
, the Russian mobile operator.
External links
- Jersey Telecom
- Wave Telecom (Jersey Telecom's Guernsey subsidiary)
- JerseyInsight (Jersey Telecom's web portal)
- JCRA (The Island's Telecommunication Regulator)
- PortingXS (Platform provider for Number Portability)