TSTT unveils new global communications system

TSTT yesterday launched Trinidad and Tobago’s first Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) at an investment cost of  $500 million. The system involves almost 100 GSM sites covering most of the East/West and North/South Corridors.

TSTT Chief Executive Officer ,Samuel Martin announced that over the next three months coverage would expand to 130 cell sites, while 100 additional sites would be added before the end of 2004. He said this would provide coverage of population centres in Trinidad and Tobago, including areas that have not had cellular reception before. Apart from the GSM sites, wireless data transmission technology, referred to as General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), will be commissioned later this year as part of the new mobile network, Martin said. When this is accomplished, Trinidad and Tobago will be among the first in the Caribbean to have a GSM/GPRS network, he added. Customers will be able to access wireless Internet and intranet connections, as well as multi-media services through the new GSM/ GPRS handsets. Additionally, TSTT is offering new service plans with lower mobile rates for calls and lingo messages.

The GPRS package will enable small, medium and corporate mobile users to communicate via chatting  audio, video and still images; multi-media messaging services; file transfer; email and internet based content; and document sharing. Martin also said TSTT had successfully completed roaming agreements with 53 carriers in 33 countries including the United States, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, six other islands in the Caribbean and Asia. President of Nortel Networks for the Caribbean and Latin American Region, Dion Joannou, applauded TSTT’s initiative and gave the assurance that the GSM system was one of the most advanced digital standards today. Joannou said the GSM system was the world’s most widely deployed wireless technology with more than 800 million subscribers at the end of 2002, representing almost 75 percent of the wireless global market.

Chief Operations Officer at TSTT Nigel Parnell in providing an overview of the new system. said the GSM handsets must be used with a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Card, a small transferable chip pre-programmed with the phone number, security data and user applications necessary to receive wireless service. It also stores the user’s contacts, applications and other information. The SIM card is a safe and cost effective medium for storing valuable information, explained Parnell, adding that in case of theft or loss, TSTT would block the SIM card at the request of the customer. Once the SIM card has been blocked, data cannot be retrieved or viewed even if the card is inserted into another GSM handset.