BTC seeks rate reductions

Wed, Jun 15th 2011, 12:18 PM

Rate reductions for mobile services could come as early as July as Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) begins to roll out some of its plans for the Bahamas Telecommunications Company, BTC CEO Geoff Houston announced yesterday.
The rate reductions depend on approval from the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA).
"We're expecting to see the first big change in our mobile rates in July," said Houston at a press conference at BTC's John F. Kennedy Drive headquarters.
"I would like to tell you what they are today but unfortunately we have yet to get final approval from URCA. But suffice it to say we are really excited that we will start to really bring down the cost of mobile calls in The Bahamas very, very soon."
BTC's vice president of marketing Marlon Johnson noted that the approval process takes about a month for rate reduction applications.
"So starting at the end of June, you'll start to see us roll out promotions for rate adjustments," he said.
When asked how the rate reduction would affect overall customer bills, Johnson declined to answer, saying that it would prejudice the approval process.
However, it was previously announced that CWC would among other things reduce cell phone rates by 36 percent within three years.
Asked why BTC had not sought to reduce rates previously, Johnson said one of BTC's mandates was to maintain its profitability.
BTC is also in the process of making several other improvements, officials announced.
Houston said BTC is making adjustments to improve the quality of its network until such time as a new network can be introduced.
He said the current network does not have the capacity to become a "world class performing network."
"So we're hoping to plug a few holes in terms of dropped calls and call quality," Houston said.
He added that BTC also intends to fix the billing system, which over the past few years has been extremely challenged.
"We've set a very ambitious work plan to fix the billing system," Houston said.  "I think that was probably the top of mind for a lot of the people and we've made some good progress there.
"We're confident that we'll have that fixed by the end of the summer. It's a big challenge but we've got a full team focused on it."
He said customer service has also been a "big challenge" for the company.
"We know that we have a lot of work ahead to position ourselves as a great service organization," Houston said.
He said BTC is also working on eliminating the bureaucracy in the company.
"So that's going to be another big thing."
As it relates to the voluntary separation packages, Houston said all employees have received their offers and have been given a month to decide.
He would not divulge how many people have already accepted the packages or how much money was set aside for the exercise.
Houston said one of the biggest concerns with the separation packages is that too many people may apply to leave BTC.
"It gives us a lot of sleepless nights. We have the right of last refusal but I think the big risk is we get too many people from one area coming forward," he said. "That places the business at risk. We really just need to deal with them on a case by case basis."
In the coming months, BTC will introduce a larger variety of smart phones and will launch its new flagship store in the Mall at Marathon before the end of the year, Houston said.

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