By the end of the year the Bahamas Telecommunications Company [BTC] will be able to upgrade its cellular telephone capacity with the installation of a high tech Global System for Mobile Communications [GMS].
The installation will be completed by Christmas, according to BTC’s Senior Vice President of Operations Leon Williams.
GMS is one of the leading cell phone technologies. It was first adopted in Europe and then spread throughout Asia, Africa and the Pacific.
Mr. Williams explained that about 70 to 80 percent of the equipment to complete the installation has already been brought in and workmen are presently testing it.
Last week Saturday, BTC’s technicians had the opportunity to test the main cellular switch.
“What we are trying to do, for example, if you are driving from the eastern part of Nassau to the western part of Nassau once you make your call, it does not get disconnected. Instead it is handed off from one cell site to the other without any disruptions,” Mr. Williams said.
Mr. Williams said the BTC is hoping that the prepaid network service in particular is up and running for Christmas.
“When we lift the moratorium [for new cellular service] in New Providence it would mean that customers who would have applied for services would have to get new type phones, if they want the new features that will be offered because New Providence and Grand Bahama is where the major points of congestions are on the old system,” Mr. Williams said.
To accommodate the upgrade, the company has built an additional 22 cell and 15 co-located cell sites in New Providence and Grand Bahama.
For the island, the new cell sites are located at Crystal Palace, the corner of Harold Road and Bethel Avenue, D. W. Davis High School, Jordan Prince Williams High School, the Water and Sewerage east and west facilities, South Ocean and South Beach.
In Grand Bahama the cell sites include Our Lucaya Towers, the National Park, South Riding Point, Mid Shipment Road and Bahama Beach.
The lifting of the moratorium will be conducted in phases. 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.
“When we lift the moratorium in the Family Islands we will be left on the old network system because the new system will only be in New Providence and Grand Bahama for now,” Mr. Williams said.
Another change, Mr. Williams explained that will take effect in December would be a call number portability, meaning that if you have an old cell phone number and you want to use the new GMS system, it can be carried over to the new system.
“We are working expeditiously with all the constraints because it’s not an easy thing to do first of all to acquire property,” Mr. Williams said. “We need these new cell sites so that we can build new towers.
In an effort to make the new cellular system for the Bahamas effective, Mr. Williams is traveling to New York, Geneva and also France to view the various GMS manufacturing plants to see how they work.
The government has allotted more than $28 million dollars for the cellular upgrades. Mr. Williams said would bring the cellular services to an acceptable level.
Back in February, BTC placed a moratorium on all new cellular phones, as the network had reached its capacity, resulting in frequent call drop offs and less than acceptable levels of total quality service.
Presently there are 126,000 customers on the cellular phone network in the Bahamas, which was designed for only 120,000 customers.
According to Mr. Williams, the cellular network was designed originally for persons who would talk on the phone for an average of 250 minutes a month. But the average BTC cellular customer uses, their cell phone for 378 minutes a month.
By Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal
