Cellular phones have become a telecommunications convenience that many people have come to rely upon. But hundreds of cell phone users are becoming frustrated with the inadequate wireless service of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company and are clamouring for some relief.
But according to BTC officials, it could take some time to rectify the problems, or at least until the moratorium on new cell phones is lifted.
Dwayne Johnson is one cell phone customer who is eager for the relevant authorities to correct problems with cellular phone services.
“I am tired, just tired of this nightmare of no signals, missed calls that go straight to your voice mail and to top it off this new text message feature that arrives hours late,” Mr. Johnson said. “I mean, do we have to suffer from bad service even though we are paying our monies every month. That’s not fair.”
Melvina Adderely is frustrated with the company because of a different problem. The mother of an ill child says she is dissatisfied with the company’s moratorium on new cellular phones.
“I never had the need for a cell phone until my baby had to be in and out of the hospital,” said Mrs. Adderely. “Now that I need one, I cannot obtain one until the government decides too. That may never happen at the rate, that they are going, and I need a phone.”
“I call on the government to please rectify this nagging problem because phones have become a necessity for some people,” she added.
The Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of the BTC Leon Williams admitted that there are some serious problems with the cellular network but said that until the government lifts the moratorium nothing can happen.
“For the customers we are trying our best to see how, we can accommodate them,” Mr. Williams said. “The network is totally congested and that is the major problem.”
Mr. Williams said that customers may experience difficulties particularly during the three o’clock hour, late in the evenings and on weekends.
“The status quo is still the same in that when we placed the moratorium in January of this year, we had 126,000 on a network that was designed for 120,000 customers,” he said.
οΎ The network, he said was designed originally for the average person who would talk on the phone on an average of 250 minutes a month. The average cellular customer uses, the cell phone for 378 minutes a month.
“The system is extremely crowed,” Mr. Williams said. He explained that calls go directly to voice mails if there is no available facility to connect the phone calls together.
“I’m hoping that we can facilitate better those persons who have voice mail to ensure that their calls are delivered to the voice mail on time,” he said.
Mr. Williams suggested that BTC take several options to alleviate the existing problems.
“They can either expand the existing TDMA network because it’s not good for business and because within a year, after privatization, the government has intentions to issue another cellular license and the new licensee would come here and beat our pants off us if we continue to expand with this technology,” he said.
The other option, he said, would be to install a brand new technology and the choice is GSM Overlay.
Mr. Williams said that the new system will be a 2.5-generation, which will moves the company into a more complex digital world.
“This new system is filled with bountifully features,” he said. “Before we get into the period where the system starts to fail and break down without technical support, we have to get this new system in place.”
More than $28 million is needed to upgrade BTC’S cellular services to an acceptable level, according to Mr. Williams.
But Mr. Williams said that before the company can move ahead with the improvement project, it must get Cabinet approval.
New Providence and Grand Bahama cellular systems will be upgraded in the first phase, with the reminder of the Family Islands being completed at a later date.
In February, BTC placed a moratorium on all new cellular phones, as the network reached near capacity, resulting in frequent call drop offs and less than acceptable levels of total quality services.
By Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal
