The Sun drenched beaches, the warm tropical breezes and the rich cultural heritage, are some of the attractions of the wonderful island nation of Jamaica. This island nation of the Greater Antilles, measuring about 150 miles in length and 50 miles in width, lies in the Caribbean Sea. It was named Xaymaca by the indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno inhabitants, which may have two meanings, the “Land of Springs,” or the “Land of Wood and Water”. Jamaica was at first in Spanish possession and was at that time known as Santiago. It was then come to be known as the British West Indies Crown colony of Jamaica.

The island nation was first sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1494. It was conquered and the Spanish settlement came into existence in the year 1509. Jamaica remained under Spanish rule till 1655 and was formally captured by England in 1670. Jamaica became the largest producer in sugar cane and a large slave population grew up around the sugar plantation. These people were mostly African. With the abolition of slavery in 1833, that took effect in the year 1838, the sugar industry declined in the 19th century. Poverty and economic decline, made the blacks to seek employment in neighboring Caribbean areas and in the United States. Many emigrated to England, Canada and the United States. Indians were brought in from India to fill up the labour shortage left by the blacks after slavery was abolished.

In spite of the labour reforms introduced, there were upsurge of black riots, notably that in 1938. These riots were caused mainly by unemployment and because of the racial policies of the British, which lead to a royal commission investigating the 1938 riots. The commission recommended the necessity of increasing the economic development fund and placement of a representative government in Jamaica.

By 1958, Jamaica became a key member of the newly created West Indies Associated State, which was made up of Antigua, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent. Each of these states was fully self governing and was voluntary associates of Great Britain. In the coming two decades, all the states became independent, the last being St. Kitts in 1962, In 1963, Jamaica was enrolled as an independent member of the Commonwealth.

Jamaica is mostly a limestone plateau, situated at more that 3,000 feet above the sea level, with a mountainous background, extending across the island from the west. This region has heavy timber reserves and experiences a lot of rainfall, which diminishes westwards. This part the land becomes rocky and rugged and is heavily dissected by streams, with underlying subterranean rivers.

The livestock grazes mostly in the heart of the plateau, which is known as the Cockpits. Jamaica’s main agricultural zones lie along the narrow plain in the northern coast and in several other larger plains near the south shore. The tourist industry is focused on the north coast, which has some of the fine beaches. The chief waterways of the country are the Rio Grande and the Black River, but are not navigable for long distances. The major areas of the crop that Jamaica exports come from the costal bands.

The population of Jamaica is mainly of African descent, with a small upper class group belonging to European descent. The rest of the population is made up of Afro-Europeans and Middle Eastern and Asian groups such as, Lebanese, Syrians, Chinese, and Indians. Most of the people in the country speak Creole English, though English is the official language. Jamaicans are mostly Protestant, although there are other religious variations, such as, Roman Catholic and spiritualist minorities.

Under the Spanish rule, the first capital of Jamaica was set up at Spanish Town, situated 10 miles inland. Port Royal, situated at the edge of the harbour, was the major center of trade. The harbour is the seventh largest one in the world. In the 17th century, Port Royal went through a series of disasters, including the tragic earthquake in 1694 and the subsequent fire. The destruction led the traders to move to the mainland, where the original township of Kingston was established.

If you are visiting the country of Sun drenched beaches and warm tropical breezes, the rich cultural heritage of Jamaica will be an experience of a life time. You will have your cell phone with you, since you need to be in touch with your associates, friends and also with your family back home. You will need to book your tours, while you are in Jamaica and reserve seats at those exquisite restaurants for the delicious meals that Jamaican cuisine has to offer.

When you went on such visits abroad at the time cell phones were not available, you had used the telephone in your hotel room to be in touch with the people, locally and abroad. You had made international calls to your business associates and friends. The bills for those calls were very high. You had no choice.

A choice did come up when mobile telephony was introduced and you took your cell phone on roaming with you. Roaming provided you with the facility to be in touch with the world from just about anywhere in this planet and it made you available to the people who wanted to get in touch with you. You were charged on every call that you made and on every incoming call that you received. Roaming charges are always higher than the normal ones. Roaming is expensive.

Roaming facility in your cell phone is provided to you by your home service provider. In providing you with that facility, your service provider has entered into a business contract with the provider of the country that you are in. In entering into such an agreement, your home service provider pays the foreign operator each time you make or receive a call through the foreign network. While using your cell phone in a foreign land, you are using the services of a particular network in that country. Therefore, if your home service provider does not have a business contract with that particular operator in the country that you are visiting, roaming facility cannot be provided to you.

There is a solution available for you to save when you visit Jamaica. A pre-paid SIM card for Jamaica provides you with savings up to 80% of your cell phone usage, in terms of money. When you buy a pre-paid SIM card for Jamaica, you get a local number and you pay for your call charges as the locals do. You do not pay for the incoming calls, no matter where it generates from and you do not pay for roaming. You do not need to enter into a contract with any service provider and you do not receive any bill at the end of the month.

When you buy a pre-paid SIM card for Jamaica, you get a small talk time credit with it. This allows you to use your cell phone right away when you reach Kingston. As you run down on your credit, there are recharge vouchers or coupons that you may buy from practically any shop in the Jamaican cities. These vouchers come in different denominations and you can buy the value of credit that you would want. Since you pre-pay for your calls, you are in total control of your expenses and remain within the budget that you have set for the purpose. For more information on pre-paid SIM card for Ireland, visit www.planetomni.com/FAQ_sim.shtml

What is a SIM card? The Subscriber Identity Module card is of the size a little smaller than a postage stamp and goes in slot at the back of your cell phone, visible as you take the back cover off. It is a smart card which renders your cell phone intelligent. It is a printed circuit board and has a microprocessor and memories. The SIM card holds your unique personal information, such as, network state information viz., its current Location Area Identity , your service plan, the SIM card and your cell phone identity, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity and other security details. On switching on the cell phone, the informations are transmitted to the relevant network of the city that you are visiting. The information is checked and matched with the data available in the operator’s database. When it is found to be matching, your cell phone is logged into the network and you are ready to make and receive calls. The SIM card also holds your address book, where you store the names and telephone numbers of the people who you call frequently. It also logs your outgoing and incoming calls and also the incoming calls which you do not answer. These are logged by its relevant time and date.

You will need a GSM cell phone when you visit Jamaica. Networks in Jamaica operate on 900MHz, 1800MHz and 1900MHz GSM frequency bands. Networks in North America, Canada and few other countries in the Americas operate on 850MHz and 1900MHz GSM frequency bands. If you have a GSM cell phone, it will work in that country, with one of the frequency bandwidths matching that of the networks in Jamaica. If you do not have a GSM phone, you have the choice of buying or renting one for your visit to Jamaica. If you are a frequent traveller to countries abroad, you may like to buy a compatible GSM cell phone, which will work in the countries that you visit. If you are not a frequent traveller, the most economical way to save money would be to rent such a cell phone which will operate in the country that you are visting. For more information on buying or renting cell phones, please visit www.planetomni.com/FAQ_gsm.shtml

For such reasons, GSM cell phones are available in multi-frequency bands. The Quad-band is compatible with all the GSM frequencies and works in all the GSM regions of the world. The Tri-band is compatible with, 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands, and would work in most of the GSM countries. There is the simple Dual-band responding to 800MHz and 1900MHz GSM frequency bands.

Whether you take along your GSM cell phone, buy or rent one, you must be aware that your phone should be SIM unlocked. If your cell phone is SIM locked, you will not be able to use your pre-paid SIM card for Jamaica or any other SIM card for that matter. A cell phone is SIM locked for a purpose. When you sign a contract with a service provider, there is a clause in that contract which binds you to the service provider for a definite period of time. This may be for a period of one year. You will receive a cell phone, absolutely free of cost and the SIM card. The phone that you will receive is SIM locked and would work with only the SIM card that you have received from the service provider. This has been done by the service provider, ensuring that you use only the SIM card given to you. Your cell phone will not work with any other SIM card. At the end of the contract period, the service provider will help you to unlock your phone. You are then at a liberty to use any SIM card of your choice.

Lets us have a brief look at what GSM is. Global System for Mobile Communication is an open structured digital wireless communication technology, developed in Europe. It is the second generation of mobile telephony and replaces the old analog first generation system. GSM is being used by over 214 countries in the world and has 80% of the subscribers out of the total mobile users. There are four frequency bands offered by GSM and these are, 850 MHz, 900 MHz, and 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz, which are distributed to the different regions, with some of the regions using common frequency bands. Within these four frequencies, 850MHz and 1900MHz bandwidths, have been allocated to North America, Canada and few more countries in the Americas. The major part of the GSM regions work with different sets of frequencies and that is the reason why you would need a compatible GSM cell phone if you should be visiting Europe, for example. Your GSM cell phone will not work. GSM provides the advantage to its users to be in touch with the world and being available to others.

The pre-paid SIM card for Jamaica is not only affordable, but saves you substantially in your phone call expenses. You not only get a local number but you pay for your calls as the locals do. There are no charges for roaming and all your incoming calls are free. Since you pre-pay for your calls, you do not receive any bill at the end of the month and there is no contract for you to sign.

Cell phone use overseas. In 99% of the world the local cellular service standard is called GSM. We use this in the states as well. When combined with a SIM CARD the phone is able to communicate and the SIM CARD also holds the telephone number and memory for pre-paid credit. Rates can be extremely low using this system. For example in 99% of all SIM CARDS incoming calls are free and calls to the states can cost a trifle. Such as, from the UK to the USA 7 cents/minute, from Israel 22 cents, from Australia 27 cents. Yes, USA Dollar cents! There are today even prepaid service providers in the USA offering rates of 10 cents per minute to call anywhere in the US to any type of phone. No contracts, no credit card checks, no bills. Pre-paid always means no minimums no contracts, no obligations. You only pay for the calls made. You’ll need an unlocked GSM tri-band or quadband UNLOCKED phone. You can buy factory unlocked phones and sim cards for more than 170 or the 193 countries on earth from http://www.planetomni.com Tel. # 800-514-2984.