CCT Boatphone, the exclusive wireless service provider of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, has awarded Tecnomen a contract to deliver and install a complete value added service solution during the last quarter of 2003. Tecnomen will provide CCT Boatphone with such messaging systems as prepaid and voice mail, as well as a Multimedia Messaging Service Centre (MMSC), unified messaging service and a WAP gateway. The solution will be taken into commercial deployment in March 2004.

Based in Tortola, the largest of the islands, CCT Boatphone provides on-board wireless services to sailing tourists and island visitors, as well as wireless services to residents and local businesses in the British Virgin Islands.
“Tecnomen’s value added service solution is a very powerful tool that provides a flexible and advanced system for offering the services that the market requires and the opportunity to fulfil our customer needs,” said Robert Lyons, General Manager, CCT Boatphone. “This is especially important to CCT Boatphone since it will add great value to local BVI residents and to the more than 600,000 tourists that visit the islands annually and account for the majority of our business.”
“CCT Boatphone is an important customer to Tecnomen as this will be our first complete delivery of our whole range of products in the Caribbean, including multimedia messaging, unified messaging, voice mail and Intelligent Networks based prepaid solutions,” said Kimmo Aura, General Manager, Tecnomen Americas. “This will be an important reference for Tecnomen, as we can demonstrate our ability to serve CCT Boatphone as well as other future customers in the Caribbean region.”
The British Virgin Islands have a population of approximately 20,000 and are a self-governing territory of the United Kingdom. The economy, one of the most stable and prosperous in the Caribbean, is highly dependent on tourism, generating an estimated 45 per cent of the national income. All charter yachts in the British Virgin Islands, 99.9 per cent, are equipped with boat phones.
The modular Tecnomen value added service solution will allow CCT Boatphone to address all aspects of today’s messaging needs and provides a solid framework for meeting future requirements with the most advanced technology available. With Tecnomen’s value added service solution, CCT Boatphone can build suitable combinations of services to respond to the needs of its market segments and target groups.

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