BTC brought a modern retail experience to the Southern Bahamas with the launch of their new flagship store in Deadman’s Cay, Long Island, Monday September 29th.
The event marked the first in a 2 month roll-out of 4, state-of-art retail stores for Harbour Island, Spanish Wells, and Bimini.
The opening was marked with a celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony, the unveiling of a wall mural produced by local artists Alfred and Genele Williams and a day of music, food, and fun where Long Island MP and FNM Deputy Leader, Loretta Butler-Turner and BTC CEO Leon Williams gave remarks.
The flagship store, which was previously a cashier and bill-pay station, offers a full menu of interactive mobile devices and customer assistance options in addition to its previous bill-pay services.
The layout is modelled after the style of flagship stores in New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, and Exuma, but has its own unique wall mural depicting the island. 3
Leon Williams said Deadman’s Cay was one of four Family Island stores opening over the next two months demonstrating BTC’s service commitment to Family Island residents and businesses; and with a broad stroke, he listed for the attendees some of the BTC capital expenditure over the past few years.
“Between 2002 and 2005 BTC spent $353 million on building infrastructure, $135 million to enable GSM phones, $66.1 million building the submarine cable, $34 million on DSL, and $23 million on a new billing system.
A couple of weeks ago I was able to convince the chairman Mr Philip Bentley to give us $65 million dollars, which is a lot in Trinidad but in The Bahamas, it is like taking a candle to a boiling ocean.”
Mr. Williams then foreshadowed the coming BTC High Definition (HD) Internet Protocol Television (IP TV) test programme in the Southern Islands of The Bahamas.
“Next year this time we want to have IP TV in Long Island, all the channels you want, in all of your homes 24/7,” he declared to rousing applause.
“We will not test IP TV in Nassau, we will in fact start in Inagua and we will make sure all of the Family Islands have it before launching it in Nassau.”
The CEO warmly congratulated the mural artists, and thanked all of the persons who had come together to make the store a success, especially on the BTC Team.
“I want to congratulate the folks that have worked so hard to make this happen,” he remarked.
“Especially Bob Gill, Retail Lead and Long Island BTC Sr. Manager, Ian Knowles, a native Long Islander and a dedicated BTC staff member who makes it happen on the ground here.
Long Island can rely on Ian, and on BTC; whatever your needs, we will do the best we can under all circumstances.”
Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner expressed her excitement with the opening of the new store and the further Family Island BTC initiatives.
“I want to say thank you BTC for this giant leap of faith in the economy of Long Island. We are delighted because we have some of the brightest minds in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas here, and bright minds want to embrace new technology.
We are a proud and industrious people and we are always delighted when businesses are able to provide services crucial to progressing our way of life.”
The local MP added that television service in Long Island was not effective currently.
“A very sore point is not having effective television services here. So we hope that the BTC IP TV beta testing is done very quickly.
Very soon, every Long Islanders will have the opportunity and the capacity to know what is going on, not just in our country but all around the world.”
BTC CEO Leon Williams; BTC Senior Manager for Long Island Ian Knowles; Ramona Taylor former BTC Senior Manager for Long Island; Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner cut the ribbon officially opening BTCs state-of-the-art new flagship store in Long Island.
Canon Harry Ward, Ramona Taylor former BTC Senior Manager, Ian Knowles BTC Senior Manager-Long Island, BTC CEO Leon Williams, Long Island MP Loretta Butler Turner, Deidre Fox Representative for Island Administrator, Bob Gill BTC Retail Lead, Eugene Thompson BTC, Inspector Harcourt Strachan, Rex Pratt, Career Builders .