SABA/ST. EUSTATIUS – As of Tuesday, December 20, 4G LTE mobile internet service is commercially available for Chippie mobile customers of St. Eustatius and Saba. The new service will replace NET ON 2G mobile internet service on both islands.
The launch of the new mobile internet service will also coincide with the introduction of new 3-in-1 bundle plans, changing the way that customers are charged for mobile internet usage. Customers who haven’t activated a new bundle plan or who have depleted the mobile internet of their bundle plans will be able to continue using their mobile internet, however, this will automatically be charged on a per megabyte basis.
Launch celebration
UTS is celebrating the commercial availability of Chippie 4G LTE and the new 3-in-1 bundle plans on Saba and Statia with raffles, specials on 4G LTE phones, live entertainment and more.
The general public is invited to the special events at the premises of UTS’ local partners; SATEL in Saba and Gem Enterprises in Statia. Agents will also be on-hand for assistance in activating the new plans of configuring the new APN settings. Full details on the new prepaid and postpaid 3-in-1 bundles can also be found on www.uts-ec.com.
Prepaid plans
The change gives prepaid customers two options for data usage, compared to the previous NET ON service. “The old service would charge the customers’ account daily for the service and would renew the service automatically until cancelled manually,” said UTS Marketing and Communication Officer Ivy Lambert.
“With our new plans customers have a choice of whether they want to pay for their data usage per megabyte and for calls per minute from their prepaid credit. The second available option is to activate one of our new flexible prepaid 3-in-1 bundle, which for most customers will be the more attractive option. The customer can select from various plans, combining minutes, SMS and mobile internet for maximum savings on your mobile expenses. The customer has the choice of larger or smaller plans, starting as low as $2.99. If it turns out you need more minutes or mobile internet, you can even add extra by simply sending an SMS,” Lambert explained.
Postpaid plans
Postpaid customers have already been migrated a week ago to a new postpaid 3-in-1 bundle of their choice ahead of the change. Their mobile internet usage will be from their selected 3-in-1 bundle, until they reach the limit of their selected data capacity. Once they have depleted the available data capacity of their bundle, their mobile internet service will continue and additional data usage charged to the next invoice on a per megabyte basis. Postpaid customers also have the option to add additional data capacity or minutes to their bundle for lower per minute/megabyte rates.
Update APN setting
The change to 4G LTE technology means that customers will need to change their APN setting in their device to access mobile internet service by Chippie. In the mobile internet settings of the device the APN setting has to be changed from uts.an to premium (no username, no password).
Customers can expect much higher speeds using this technology, allowing live video streaming, WhatsApp calling and more. The switch is part of the UTS’ company-wide approach to upgrade its service offerings to the customers; including St. Eustatius and Saba. “We expect that customers will be pleasantly surprised by the enhanced service offered on our 4G LTE network,” said Lambert.
Usage charges as of December 20
As of December 20, customers that already have APN setting ‘premium’ configured will be charged for data usage automatically per megabyte. Many St. Eustatius Chippie customers already have this setting configured because they have been able to test Chippie’s 4G LTE service for the past few weeks free or charge.
Smartphones often utilize large amounts of data due to programs that are constantly connecting to the internet in the background to check for updates and download information. Examples of this are Facebook, WhatsApp calls, news applications and email applications.
UTS recommends to customers that do not want to be charged for this background usage that they deactivate their mobile internet service on their device until they are ready to choose the plan that best suits them for mobile internet service.
