CCT Boatphone, the exclusive wireless service provider of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in the Caribbean, will soon introduce GSM roaming and multimedia messaging service to the BVI. The new services are expected to be generally available in the BVI beginning in May 2004. CCT Boatphone is making a substantial investment to upgrade the communications infrastructure of the BVI with these new services.
"As exclusive wireless service provider of the BVI, CCT Boatphone is committed to providing the BVI people with world-class wireless technology that benefits consumers and commerce on the islands," said Rob Lyons, CCT Boatphone General Manager. "We are honored to be tasked with bringing 21st century wireless communications capabilities to the British Virgin Islands."
In addition to GSM global roaming, CCT Boatphone will introduce multimedia-messaging service (MMS).
Both of these enhancements to the local telecommunications infrastructure are expected to prove particularly beneficial to the tourist industry, which generates about half (45%) of the nation"s gross domestic product. One of the most stable and prosperous economies in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands is a self-governing territory of the United Kingdom and a major yachting destination. Nearly every charter yacht registered in the BVI is equipped with a mobile telephone.
"Investing in telecom infrastructure improvements - particularly wireless - is essential to the economic future of the BVI," concluded Lyons. "Working with a team of first-class technology providers, CCT Boatphone will soon offer consumers, businesses and tourists an array of voice and data communications services unrivaled by those available anywhere else in the Caribbean."
Nortel Networks will provide wireless infrastructure solutions based on GSM, GPRS and EDGE technologies. Two Finnish companies are being tapped to provide state-of-the-art products and services: Tecnomen, a developer of value-added service systems, will provide CCT Boatphone with such systems as prepaid and voice mail, as well as a Multimedia Messaging Service Centre (MMSC), unified messaging and wide area paging; Comptel will provide the company with mediation and provisioning software solutions that will provide users with an enhanced customer service experience. U.S. based firm, Sentori, will provide integrated billing solutions. Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), of Munich, Germany, will provide smart memory cards for use in multimedia handsets.
A Caribbean-based company founded in 1986, CCT Boatphone provides wireless telecommunications services to British Virgin Islands" sailing and land-based tourists as well as business and residential customers. With nine cellular sites on five British Virgin Islands, CCT Boatphone offers wireless services including voice and data. The company currently has 38 employees with headquarters in Tortola and a branch office in Virgin Gorda."
Posted to the site on 5th December 2003
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/10242.php