“There were some issues this morning in those areas that we have to mitigate. When we initially started at 9:00 a.m., we were unable to turn on phones. It worked yesterday (Sunday) but anything that could go wrong would always go wrong at the most inopportune time,” BTC Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Mr. Leon Williams said, adding that engineers at BTC have been working “feverishly” to iron out the problem.
According to Mr. Williams, BTC was making an attempt to “remotely” turn on phones from the hotel via its John F. Kennedy Drive head office, but there were some “issues” with the connectivity of BTC’s fibre optic cables at its communication center at JFK and those regular cables installed at the hotel.
On the other hand, Mr. Williams said that “day one” of the launch went “well”. He mentioned that BTC during its four-day trade show at Wyndham, has also scheduled seminars for members of the business community, BTC staff and students. The seminars, he said, are open to the public and a special seminar will be held for high school students.
“It is important for us to be able to pass and familiarize them (students) with technology. Certainly, this technology appeals to them and most students their age can use a cell phone without using a book. We want to keep their creativity moving forward and not only introduce them to technology as a user, but be able to get high school students interested in programming and the science of electronics and engineering,” he said.
On Sunday, BTC officially launched GSM to BTC staff and invited guests before officially opening its trade show and exhibition yesterday. Also present were representatives from Nortel Networks, of which BTC signed a contract agreement with Nortel to implement the GSM infrastructure on June 16, 2003.
It was revealed on Sunday that BTC beat the predicted March 2004 date indicated by the International Telecommunications Union as the time that GSM would achieve its one-billionth customer. At the time, Mr. Williams referred to the launch as a “red letter day” in BTC and said he was “truly excited” BTC was able to stay on the cutting edge of technology along with 190 plus countries where GSM is now launched.
Here in The Bahamas, GSM postpaid phones would be referred to as “GalaxC,” while its prepaid cellular services would be referred to as “RocKit”. The entire GSM system would be referred to as “Cyber Cell”.
The GSM prepaid GSM cellular service will feature three plans: An Every Day rate plan, Basic Rate plan ($3 monthly) and a Premium Rate plan ($5.00 monthly).
The postpaid GSM cellular service will feature the: Mercurypac with a contractual plan for $29.99 and a month to month plan of $34.99; the Moonpac, offers a monthly local plan for $99.99; the Venuspac offers a monthly local plan for $59,99, while the Earthpac offers a monthly local plan for $139.99.
Various GSM features include: Call forwarding, call waiting, multi party conference, caller line ID presentation, caller ID restriction, outgoing calls only, incoming calls only, do not disturb, selective call acceptance, voicemail, enhanced voicemail and toll denial.
In addition to services offered during its first phase launch, BTC is presently in the process of beta-testing other features, such as multi-media services. This will allow a GSM cell phone user to take pictures and send it to another phone. A GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is also being tested, which will allow GSM users to surf the Internet.
In regards to billing, Mr. Williams told The Guardian Monday that a brand new billing platform was installed by Sentori, which gives BTC much more flexibility over its old TDMA platform. He mentioned that Sentori allows BTC to offer various GSM packages with different rate plans, also allowing BTC to offer “specials” during certain months.
In addition to Sentori providing the new billing platform and Nortel Networks delivering BTC’s network system, other vendors include: Logica for text messaging, MMS and GPRS Lightbridge for the prepaid platform; G&D for the manufacture of the SIM cards, Tremor Technology for mediation and roaming, and Bright Star and Bright Point for the provision of handsets.
Mr. Williams said that so far, roaming agreements have been signed with two carriers: Rogers (a Canadian carrier) and Cingular (a U.S. based carrier). He mentioned that BTC hopes to begin its roaming service early in the second quarter of 2004.
Meanwhile, GSM is expected to be launched in Grand Bahama in just a matter of weeks, while engineering for the GSM Abaco network is underway. Other Family Islands are expected to follow.
Tamara McKenzie, The Nassau Guardian
