BTC deploys “green”, storm-resilient Central Offices on Family Islands

BTC deploys “green”, storm-resilient Central Offices on Family Islands
Andre Foster.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Following the lessons learned from the last major hurricane, BTC recently made major changes to further improve the redundancy of its infrastructure with the deployment of green, storm-resilient, containerized Central Offices on several Family Islands and cays.

The Central Offices, commonly known as “exchanges”, house switching equipment for residential and business customers’ telephone lines and will further bolster BTC’s network resiliency while minimizing the reliance on commercial power. The Central Offices in McLean’s Town, Grand Bahama; Marsh Harbour and Cooper’s Town, Abaco; Ragged Island; and Sweeting’s Cay were the beneficiaries of this new technology.

BTC CEO André Foster commented: “Our first ‘why’, as a business, is our commitment to keeping people, businesses and communities connected. We continue to invest in innovative technologies and solutions that enable us to meet and exceed the demands of our customers.

BTC’s containerized Central Office in McLean’s Town, Grand Bahama. (PHOTO: BTC)
BTC’s containerized Central Office in Marsh Harbour, Abaco. (PHOTO: BTC)

“We are indeed proud of this enhancement to our network, which is a great example of the Central Office of the future and also serves to protect the environment. This is just one of the many ways that we are working to evolve our entire business.”

The rugged containerized solutions are fueled with solar power and an internal backup generator. The use of commercial power is considered as an alternate source of electricity. The first deployment was in McLean’s Town and that unit has operated completely off-grid via solar since May 2020. The units are outfitted with retractable solar panels on top of the containers and have the ability to retract inward to protect itself during instances of severe weather. These are all remotely manned solutions.

As BTC continues to upgrade its Central Offices nationwide, it will replace traditional brick-and-mortar central offices with next generation self-sustaining solutions as a part of the company’s technology roadmap. BTC is also modernizing its network to thousands of homes across The Bahamas and has completed its fiber-to-the-home upgrades on Grand Bahama, Exuma and surrounding cays and several areas of New Providence.