UTS granted mobile concession
UTS has been granted a mobile concession in St. Eustatius, which will allow the company to further develop mobile operations and service offerings to the public on this island. UTS was already offering mobile services on the island as UTS/Radcomm under EUTELs mobile concession. UTS has been offering these services under the Chippie brand-name in partnership with EUTEL; providing GSM service with 2 ½ G mobile internet, better known as EDGE. In keeping with the company’s business plan for the Eastern Caribbean, the company will now further develop its mobile offering by introducing 3G+ and 4G LTE mobile internet service on St. Eustatius as UTS WICC, the newly established company which received its business license recently.
Increased investment in St. Eustatius
With this new business license from the government of St. Eustatius, as well a mobile concession from the Agentschap UTS will be able to make the necessary investments and respond more quickly to market demands. With the recent announcement that the fees due by operators to the telecom regulator, Agentschap, the company will be able to invest and build out at an accelerated rate. The decrease in operational costs will go directly towards building St. Eustatius’ first 4G LTE network, which will commence within short. While building and rolling out the 4G LTE network, UTS will also be introducing 3G mobile service on the island. Both classes of technologies will be utilized to provide better service to customers. Whether the customer has a 4G LTE compatible smartphone or a phone that supports 3G technology, they will be able to enjoy blazing fast mobile internet speeds. After the successful launch of LTE on St Maarten and the announcement last week of a similar introduction in Saba, St. Eustatius will be the next market in the Eastern Caribbean whose customers will be benefitting from this better service. Following suit with the company’s business plan for the Eastern Caribbean, the company plans to install the new service before the end of quarter 2 of 2016 on the island of St. Eustatius. Installation, testing and inspection will take place during Q2 of 2016 with the commercial availability scheduled for the beginning of Q3.
Increased capacity
Another such significant investment the company is making is one in more capacity. UTS has its own fiber transport on the SSCS fiber cable between St. Maarten and St. Eustatius. This fiber replaces the microwave technology which used to be the primary link between the islands. This microwave technology will remain in operation as backup connectivity. Obtaining this capacity on the SSCS fiber
system which allow UTS to offer the consumer better connectivity and faster speeds on the Chippie mobile network.
Travel convenience
With Chippie mobile service in St. Eustatius being part of the overall Chippieland network, St. Eustatius customers are able to travel with their Chippie number to other islands and continue using mobile service at local rates. This means that St. Eustatius customers traveling to St. Maarten or elsewhere within Chippie 3G and 4G LTE coverage will be able to travel with no interruption to their high speed mobile internet service. The new service is not only a convenience for Statians traveling abroad though. The availability of high speed mobile internet on the island will also be good for visiting tourists and business travelers coming to the island. They can continue using their mobile service while roaming with their ‘foreign’ number and conduct ‘business as usual’.
UTS Eastern Caribbean CEO, Glen Carty explains: “We are quite excited to be able to bring an upgrade in technology to our loyal Chippie customers of St. Eustatius. We greatly appreciate that they have stuck with us while we made preparations for this. This enhancement will bring significant improvement in their service experience, bringing them faster mobile internet service to their smartphone. Our customers in St. Eustatius will soon also be able to enjoy the same service that our customers on St. Maarten have been able to benefit from, enabling them to use all the latest apps and access high quality content at lightning-fast speeds. They will be able to access content such as Netflix, Skype, Youtube and more with ease. Not only is this a fantastic experience for the user, the island on a whole will benefit more as well. Besides the benefits for the consumer, technological advancements are also good for the economy. Businesses rely on high speed connections to conduct their affairs and achieve the efficiencies that have become essential in today’s fast-paced corporate environments. On top of that, you also want to be able to offer visiting tourists the same level of service that they have grown accustomed to at home. All these factors will ultimately further the development of the island of St. Eustatius. UTS pledges to continue to work diligently towards its goal of connecting our customers, whether they are consumers or businesses, to those things that matter to them most”
Carty continues: “UTS would like to thank the government of St. Eustatius for the trust put into us as a corporate citizen in granting UTS-WICC the necessary permission to do business, invest and expand in St. Eustatius. This will allow us to deepen our commitment to our customers and the island on a whole. We would also like to thank our long-time business partner EUTEL for the pleasant cooperation over the past decades of working together. We are looking forward to and very excited about continuing our collaboration to bring the people of St. Eustatius much needed service enhancements. Once all network installations and testing are completed, we will kick off with a launch celebration. Important there is that we offer anyone who doesn’t have a phone that allows them to make use of the enhanced service optimally, a new device that can optimally access all the wonderful things these faster services have to offer.”
4G LTE service allows customers to achieve speeds up to 10 megabytes per second. Due to these increased speeds customers can access much richer content and have a smoother usage experience than possible on 2G. This seamless experience opens up a world of information and possibilities with access to apps such as Netflix, Youtube, Facebook and the many other social media. Rather than just for communication, your device now becomes a source of entertainment, inspiration and all-round engagement.
