TelEm Group technicians and engineers are busy preparing for a mass transfer of thousands of customer lines from the company’s DMS 100/200 switches to a new CS2K Softswitch.
The cutover follows months of preparation behind the scenes and especially in the field where some subscriber lines will eventually be strapped in all the districts to ensure a smooth transfer of numbers.
The CS2K cutover exercise will begin in the Dawn Beach area on Friday, August 13th and will continue in other districts until September 16th when the final lines are scheduled to be transferred.
The transfer will be one of the most significant technological upgrades for the TelEm Group, since the introduction of the DMS 100 by the St, Maarten Telephone Company N.V. when digital technology was first pioneered by the company.
Once the project is completed, TelEm Group will have moved from a fully digital platform to a more modern IP-based (Internet Protocol) platform.
TelEm Group will then be able to offer better and faster DSL internet connections to customers, cleaner and more telephone lines and a host of new features that could not be offered previously, including new data services.
The new CS2K Softswitch is also easier to maintain and is less vulnerable to hurricane damage and other natural disasters.
Project Manager for the CS2K cutover exercise is Supervisor Switching Networks, Kenneth Blijden.
Mr. Blijden, along with his team of TelEm and Smitcoms technicians and engineers is charged with ensuring that customers are not adversely affected by the transfer of lines from the old to the new system.
"We will be transferring customer lines in all districts starting with Dawn Beach on August 13," said Mr. Blijden.
He said in order to facilitate the cutover, there will be a no new installations and/or repairs to customer lines for two days before the date of the cutover in each district.
"In the case of Dawn Beach, since we will be cutting over on the 13th of August, there will be no new installations or repairs to customer lines from August 11th when the old system is being dismantled and the new system connected," said Mr. Blijden.
He said schedules for each of the districts will posted internally and to the media informing the public when their district will be affected by the transfer exercise.
A Helpdesk number is also being arranged for members of the public with questions or have problems with the telephone lines immediately following the transfer of their number to the new softswitch platform.
The Helpdesk number is ( 546 – 9999)
The Cutover team consists of: Kenneth Blijden (Project Manager); Donville Hodge (Assistant Project Manager); Edmond Stroop; Anthony Carty; Carlos Monsanto, Percival Cocks and personnel from Switching & Transmission Departments of (TelEm) and (TelCell).