Cel*Star bringing in more equipment for service launch
Guyana Chronicle
May 10, 2004
CEL*STAR Guyana Inc. has received its first container of additional support equipment as it prepares to launch its service to Guyanese consumers.
In an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Chief Operating Officer Mr. Pierre Strasser stated that shipments would continue biweekly until next month, when all the required equipment costing some $25M would be available.
He explained that the first shipment comprises of antennas and cables, and will be utilized on the Billing Platform Systems (BPS).
The BPS will allow accurate and timely billing of consumers.
According to the Chief Operating Officer Cel*Star has already catered for expansion and will ensure increased capacity to accommodate reliable and efficient service for each Cel*Star customer.
The increased capacity is essential to ensuring that circuits will not be so busy that customers cannot use the service when they need it.
He noted that Cel*Star caters for every Guyanese and the service will be extended as far as Charity, Bartica and Lethem.
According to Mr. Strasser, Cel*Star has received excellent responses from the general public, other organizations and prominent members of society.
He lauded the Government's role in facilitating a competitive telecommunications sector in Guyana, calling it "a heart in the right place" for which he is thankful.
Mr. Strasser also spoke of the Government's sincerity and transparency in its intention to open up the telecommunications sector.
He expressed a strong desire to work and develop a healthy working relationship with GT&T.
Cel*Star Guyana, which is located at 56 High Street, Kingston, has already graduated its first batch of trained engineers after extensive training with certification in the Ossidian examinations, which will allow them to function as the foremost authority on Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) within Guyana.
The Ossidian is an internationally recognized training institution that provides tutorials and courses, by incorporating the knowledge of wireless telecom experts worldwide.
The engineering training will facilitate Cel*Star Guyana in deploying its state of the art GSM network to ensure that the Guyanese public benefits from a reliable and technologically advanced telecommunications service provider.
While the exact date of its launching is not yet known, Cel*Star has already met the business community and concluded a series of meetings with them across the country, including Georgetown, Linden, New Amsterdam and Corriverton.
Cel*Star officials involved in the outreach reported tremendous response from the business community. (Shirwin Campbell)