Philipsburg:--- Management of the United Telecommunications Services on St. Maarten and Curacao are busy working on a five year plan which would enhance their services announced CEO Glen Carty and Interim Chief Operating Officer Roy Richardson.St. Maarten they said has 17 cell sites and already the company has received approval for another 12 sites that have to be installed. So far, UTS can boast of its island wide coverage and they do not have to partner with any of the French networks Carty said. UTS has island wide coverage on Curacao, Saba, St. Maarten and Statia while they are busy working on setting up more cell sites on St. Barths where they would place their focus on dealing with authorized dealers. UTS sold its Chippie Land on St. Kitts but they managed to secure the new owners as a partner. That owner, Carty said has a Telecommunications Network in Anguilla thus giving UTS an advantage on that island.
At a press conference at the UTS office on Tuesday, Carty said the company made 15.1 million guilders in profit in 2010. However, the government owned company was also involved in several community related projects as well as giving back to the community through promotions.
While UTS is busy working on maintaining a high level of service, they are competing with the international market. The CEO and COO said the company has to invest millions of guilders in infrastructure so they can compete adequately. Carty gave an example of how many carriers can be picked up at the Princess Juliana International Airport while there are only two authorized companies that can do business locally. He said because of that, the local companies are losing millions of guilders per year while they are called to invest millions in infrastructure. They describe their challenges as humongous with unfair competitions.
However, Carty said the prognosis thus far is positive even though challenging since they are forced to compete against big international companies who have secured their licenses to do business in the Caribbean. Carty also confirmed that UTS is doing business with LIME as their roaming partners. He said it would be advisable for customers traveling overseas to turn off their "Data Receiving" option when traveling since roaming charges are normally very high. UTS is also working on sealing a deal with another network in Guadeloupe which would enable UTS customers to use their services while in Guadeloupe and Martinique.