St. Maarten Cable Tv Celebrating 20 Years
Making major strides ahead, says Beulah Jonis
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of St. Maarten Cable TV, Managing Director Beulah Jonis spoke to The Daily Herald, telling about the present and future of the company. Having been at the helm of the company for two years and knowing that three of her colleagues have been at St. Maarten Cable TV since the start (see related stories), she referred to these "old-timers" where it concerned historical details.
About the present and the future, Beulah is very positive. "We are now activating the entire underground network and blowing our fiber; actually rebuilding our Cable TV infrastructure. Between now and April, we have planned to have 60 per cent of our network activities underground. The rest will happen as trenching projects are completed and some areas of our network will remain overhead for sometime," she revealed. "The company is scheduled to start the digital process in 2008. Internet over the cable will be available before the ending of 2007 to some areas on the Philipsburg side of the hill for current pay TV subscribers and non-subscribers," she announced with a measure of pride.
In the Philipsburg area, St. Maarten Cable TV went along with the Front Street and Back Street beautification projects where underground activities were concerned. In this and other areas, the company (and TelEm as well) is depending on GEBE, the principal company for completing the underground cabling system, for which the preparations started in 1996. "It has been a major capital investment for us over the years, but the long term benefits will be there," she says.
At present St. Maarten Cable TV employs about 25 people and has over 7,000 subscribers on the Dutch side of the island. The Basic package is 40 channels, Solid Gold includes an additional 8 channels and Platinum, which started this year, has another 10 channels. "We receive the international stations through satellite. Ninety per cent is US and the rest is regional and European. We have also been operating TV15 for the past 19 years. It's a local channel, only accessible to Cable TV subscribers. It's a closed circuit."
Telling some more about the new plans, Beulah pointed out, "We are still an analogue system, but with our upgrading plans, we will add 870MHz in preparation to go digital. The necessary change out of approximately 18,000 boxes will be the biggest part of the operation. The digitalization is supposed to start by the third quarter of 2008." This year St. Maarten Cable TV started with upgrading of the network, going from the current one-way to two-way. "It's a major operation, but two-way is much more efficient, as we get the signal back. We also need two-way in order to do Internet"
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