POND ISLAND:--- The use of Broadband services for sustainable development is the theme of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day when it is marked on Saturday May 17, with telecommunication workers around the world focusing their attention on the part they play in their respective communities.
The day is celebrated each year with 2014 being the 149th anniversary year of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which sponsors the annual celebration.
TelEm Group management and personnel are marking the day one day early today (Friday), at the main building and branch offices, with a token offering of drinks and snacks to visiting customers.
The company said since the actual day is on Saturday, when few personnel are at hand, the opportunity was being taken on Friday morning to provide the customer treat.
On the same day TelEm Group personnel plan to visit the Sister Basilia Center and the White & Yellow Cross facility in St. John's to volunteer their services on World Telecommunication Day and Information Society Day.
TelEm Group Chief Financial officer (CFO) Mrs. Helma Etnel, said the main objective of the day is to raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies by providing job and business opportunities at home and from overseas.
"In St. Maarten, we are not only raising awareness, but we are actually putting things in place to make these possibilities a reality by taking the risk and providing the technologies upon which broadband services will depend," said Mrs. Etnel.
She points to the SMPR-1 submarine fibre cable of sister company Smitcoms N.V.; the 3G data services provided by TelCell and, in the future, the Fibre-to-the-Home Project as examples of how the company is utilizing Broadband to the betterment of telecommunications services on St. Maarten now and in the future.
"For instance, we are busy working with government and seeking funding for a Fibre to the Home project that will create new connectivity and provide additional broadband services to communities and to homes on St. Maarten in years to come.
"We see a future where more people will be able to work from home, where hospitals and patients can benefit from e-medicine and students can enroll into e-learning programs from universities many miles away.
"The potential for creating new jobs, opening call centers and developing e-commerce is endless and fully supports the diverse community and many spoken languages that St. Maarten has to offer additionally as a regional telecommunication and communication hub," continued Mrs. Etnel.
In this regard she says the company is already laying a network of conduit throughout the island in preparation for the laying of fibre cables and will also soon begin a pilot fibre-to-the-home project in two St. Maarten neighbourhoods - also as a first step.
"We are most fortunate to have all stakeholders on St. Maarten working towards the same goal of "Broadband for Sustainable Development" since 2004, when our sister company pioneered the delivery of the SMPR-1 undersea fibre cable to St. Maarten, therefore this year's theme is not a new one for us, but one that we bought into and have been building on for many years to give St. Maarten what it is entitled to," said Mrs. Etnel.
The CFO wished to recognize TelEm Group personnel and all workers in the Telecommunication sector for what is essentially their day.
"Telecommunications plays such an important part in our modern-day lives, raising the status of our sector to an essential public service along with power, housing and water, therefore we cannot forget or fail to recognize those who work behind the scenes each day to keep our telecommunication services going and our economies and communities connected," said Mrs. Etnel.
TELEM Press Release