POINTE BLANCHE:--- TelEm Group has upgraded network services in the Harbour Facility area, greatly improving the quality of service to residential and business clients, including customers at the Harbour facility.
The network upgrade includes installation of a brand new state-of-the-art cell site on the Harbour facility roof will be serve the entire harbor and surrounding areas.
The new installation is already recording a record amount of usage, making the upgraded cell site TelCell's 2nd busiest on the island since installation.
The upgrades became necessary in recent weeks due to deteriorating quality of service to residential and business customers in the Harbor Facility area due to radio frequency interference from a telecommunication operator in neighboring St. Kitts.
According to Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Mr. Eldert Louisa, the Harbor Facility upgrade is the first in a series of operations being carried out on the company's extensive mobile network to improve quality of service in a number of areas where, as at the harbor, voice and data services are poor and require improvement.
Mr. Louisa said the upgrading operations began months ago as a result of increasing demand for voice and broadband capacity on the network as users increasingly utilize the data features on their Smartphone and other mobile devices.
He said this problem has been compounded in other areas, including network interference from neighbouring Anguilla earlier in the year and more recently from neighbouring St. Kitts.
"With the assistance of RF experts from overseas we were able to correct the interference issue from Anguilla with the assistance of the Bureau of Telecommunication and Post St. Maarten and at the same time make use of several recommendations from the experts on how we could better optimize and fine tune our mobile network," said Mr. Louisa.
He said the company technicians and engineers are continuing to implement these recommendations of optimization and fine tuning of all the network cell sites on an on-going basis with much improvement in a number of areas resulting in less dropped calls and fewer missed calls.
One of the fine-tuning operations has been the so-called "down-tilting" of mobile antennas throughout the mobile network to improve signal coverage and reduce the number of customer dropped calls in some congested areas, including the Philipsburg area. Another operation awaiting implementation is the installation of mini-cell sites in shopping malls and other densely populated areas where congestion issues also exist.
"Another part of the implementation exercise includes upgrading hardware and software on the mobile network to enable better operation of the many different smartphones that can operate on the network with all their different features and this is a process that also takes time and is ongoing," continued, the CTO.
He said as well as the upgrading of various network elements, the company is in the process of adding new cell sites in several areas throughout St. Maarten to further improve the mobile coverage area generally.
Also included in the package of network improvements is a 360 degree turnaround in the quality of service for TelEm Group customers using their mobile phones on the French Side.
He said unfortunately, due to the upgrade of TelCell's French Side partner Dauphin Telecom to a new 3G network, it has taken longer than expected to synchronize the new network with the 3G network of TelCell so that customers can easily move from one network to the next seamlessly.
"The first stage of this synchronization has been completed with the voice service to TelCell's post-paid customers now fully restored. Our Post paid customers can now make and receive voice calls on the French Side as they could before while we are working on restoring their data usage via the Dauphin Telecom 3G network ," said Mr. Louisa.
He said technicians from both companies are now synchronizing their respective 3G networks so that TelCell's pre-paid customers can also enjoy the quality of service they were used to previously when making or receiving calls from the French Side.
"We operate a very dynamic voice and data mobile network that has to be handled very carefully so that we can make very complicated adjustments while maintaining at least an acceptable level of service," said the Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Louisa.
He said the adjustments take time since they have to be made, tested and if necessary corrected, before they are tested again.
"It is a tedious but necessary process which takes time and still have to be made while the company continues to battle with the problem of interference from nearby islands over which the company has little or no control," continued Mr. Louisa.
He says TelEm Group will continue to work with the local regulator to find permanent solutions with the cooperation of the overseas operators themselves who, according to Mr. Louisa, are causing the interference.
TelEm Group's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mrs. Helma Etnel says the company is addressing many of the technical issues affecting its voice and data network on several fronts at the same time and no expense is being spared when it comes to solutions that can be provided by TelEm Group itself.
"It is a different matter when the solutions are out of your hands and your control, such as the interference and frequency issues, or when your partner on the French Side needs to stabilize their own voice and data network before they can make good on the one-island network we jointly subscribe to," said Mrs. Entel.
Both TelEm Group executives have appealed to customers to be patient and allow the network improvements to kick in once they have been implemented. Both are confident all upgrades and a much more efficiently operating mobile network will be fully functional at the start of the new year.
"The Pointe Blanche/Harbour facility upgrades are a start and shows we are working in the right direction," they said.
Telem Press Release
