Cellular phone companies in
tug of war for ‘carrier select’
PHILIPSBURG--Eastern Caribbean Cellular International (ECCI) has complained to Bureau Telecommunications & Post (BT&P) that the other cellular providers in St. Maarten aren’t willing to open their infrastructure for their clients to choose ECCI as their carrier, the so-called carrier select, for international phone calls.
BT&P inspectors were in St. Maarten last week to investigate the matter.
BT&P director Joao de Canha told The Daily Herald he hadn’t received a report on the inspections yet. He said there could be different reasons this hadn’t been done yet.
“I know that the TelCell mobile system was outdated and had to be upgraded to make the carrier select option possible,” he said, adding that with the TelEm landlines clients could choose whether they wanted to use UTS, ECCI or Smitcoms for long distance calls.
ECCI local director Beulah Jonis said ECCI had submitted a request to the cellular companies in St. Maarten last year for carrier select and had sent reminders afterwards, but the companies still hadn’t complied with the request. Speaking from ECCI’s experience with Smitcoms, she said that legally it was stated that the companies should have the infrastructure ready within four weeks after a request had been made.
Experts at BT&P explained that in the permit a telephone company received it was stated that the necessary connections should be in place within six weeks of a request. However, this depends on whether large investments or major technical adjustment should be made. In some cases it’s necessary to upgrade the whole cellular phone system because it’s outdated. This also applies to the company that is requesting carrier select.
UTS director Glen Carty also confirmed that ECCI had made a request and said the process had been progressing. He said BT&P technicians were in St. Maarten to take inventory of all cellular companies on the island.
However, he stressed that carrier select should be implemented across the board. “It shouldn’t be that only UTS has to implement carrier select, but also TelCell and ECCI should do that, so their clients can also choose to place international calls through UTS if they want to,” he said.
He said it would take some time before the technical requirements would be in place. UTS also wants to look at the legal aspects of the matter.
Carty: “Besides the technical aspects, you also have the commercial and legal aspects of the matter. We don’t want to confuse our clients. UTS already has a good name and we don’t want to jeopardise that. In addition, we want to discuss with BT&P who will be responsible when something goes wrong. This has to be clear; otherwise, it’s UTS’ good name that will suffer.”
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