POINTE BLANCHE:--- TelEm Group and the Harbour Group of companies have joined forces to create the Caribbean's first high-tech crew lounge, offering cruise ship staff a purpose-built facility to relax in and make calls to their families and friends back home while browsing on the internet.
The new crew lounge is located upstairs in the Harbour's Cruise & Cargo building.
It offers high-speed internet, voice and data services and luxury seating for up to 60 crew members at a time in a comfortable environment with ambient lighting and cool colour tones.
The crew lounge was officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday morning by Prime Minister, and TelEm Group Shareholder Representative, Mrs. Sarah Wescot-Williams together with Minister responsible for Telecommunications, Harbour and Economic Affairs, Mr. Ted Richardson.
On behalf of TelEm Group, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mrs. Helma Etnel, said the company's history in working with the Harbour Group goes all the way back to the development of the facility into the model cruise and cargo facility it is today, when TelEm Group made major financial investments in exchange for office accommodation.
She said the company was very proud to continue with this close working relationship with the launch of the new crew lounge to once again profile the innovative and dynamic services St. Maarten has to offer to its visiting cruise ship passengers and crew.
She said TelEm Group has not only invested in its harbor store and now the new crew lounge, but also in the technology that is necessary to ensure that both services meet the demanding requirements of today's mobile voice and data users.
"We have installed a brand new state-of-the-art cell site at the Harbour facility which, in less than one month has become the 2nd busiest cell site in our entire mobile network," said Mrs. Etnel.
Mrs. Etnel said the installation will give much relief to visiting crew members and also to Harbour staff and resident business who have been complaining about poor signals and service in recent months.
"Unfortunately we were forced to change our mobile frequency because of interference to our mobile network from Anguilla earlier this year, and this caused an additional problem, by moving the interference to the Harbour area where new network interference, this time from St. Kitts, affected service here," explained Mrs. Etnel.
She said a decision was taken in collaboration with Harbour Group Managing Director, Mr. Mark Mingo, to install a new cell site at the harbor to deal with this interference and provide a permanent improvement in service to the Harbour Group and its customers.
TelEm Group Chief Commercial Officer Brian Mingo invited guests at the official opening to browse through the newly renovated TeleCom Boutique before visiting the new crew lounge and taking part in a welcoming toast.
He congratulated project coordinator and newly named TelEm Group Employee-of-the-Year Suraj Ramdas for seeing the project through and for creating a unique service in the Caribbean.
Managing Director of the Harbour Group of Companies, Mr. Mark Mingo is also delighted with the new crew lounge and with the level of cooperation that has taken place between the two government-owned companies.
He said crew members are seen as an important group that should also be catered to by the Harbour and the destination generally because this group of visitors also have a considerable spending power while in port.
Mr. Mingo wished TelEm Group much success with the facility and also thanked the company for the new cell site, which he said has greatly improved communication at the port facility.
Telem Press Release