The Bahamas Telecommunications Company's (BTC) mobile customers will now pay the same rate to call any cell phone in the country, as the company has eliminated the extra charge for inter-island cell phone calls.  BTC has also made it possible for cell phone users to call or text any other cell phone on its network without using the prefix '242', simplifying the process of making calls and messaging.
 
The changes went into effect July 10 and are part of Cable and Wireless Communications' strategy to transform the telecommunications provider since it bought a majority share in April, BTC CEO Geoff Houston told The Nassau Guardian yesterday.

"We felt that to make it more competitive, more customer-focused, we needed to deal with what we felt were some of the barriers to communication within The Bahamas," Houston explained.  "One of the barriers was obviously the surcharge that customers were paying across the mobile network to call the Family Islands."

BTC now allows customers to dial and text message using only the receiver's seven-digit number.  Customers can also return calls to numbers that appear with '1-242' or simply '242' in front of them.  Houston said the previous process was "making calling unnecessarily complicated," and the two major changes should "make calling easier for customers and cheaper as well."

"We see our business in The Bahamas as one business whether you're in Exuma or Abaco or New Providence or any of the cays, we see it as one network, one business," he said.  But BTC's move won't come cheap.  The company will lose the 18 cents per minute it previously charged for inter-island calls.

Houston said the move to eliminate the extra charge will have a negative impact on the company's revenue in the short-term, but both changes should have the opposite effect in the long-term.

"We're actually making it cheaper and more importantly we're making it easier to call," he said, adding that business will probably increase in a few months time.  "I think it will take some time as people figure out it's easier to make calls and return calls.  And people will start to figure out that it's now a bit cheaper.  Over the coming months I think it's going to be quite positive for the business and actually help grow the business and grow the services."

Houston said BTC has three goals at the top of its agenda: Reorganization, transformation and integration.  In terms of reorganization, BTC recently concluded the application phase of a voluntary separation exercise program (VSEP) which the company hopes will trim its workforce by 30 percent.

"We're cautiously optimistic that we're making progress with the program," he said.  "Obviously the offer stage is closed and now we're starting to process all the applications and I would expect that over the month of July some of our colleagues will start to leave the business.  And that will kick-start the whole process of reorganizing the whole company as we start to get much more lean and more customer focused."

Houston said that transformation is also a critical component of the company's strategy as it seeks to prepare itself for competition when the mobile market is liberalized in three years.
The second big thing on the agenda is to manage the integration of the business into the Cable & Wireless family, in particular in terms of LIME in the region.

He admitted that integrating BTC into Cable and Wireless Communications' Caribbean operation (LIME) will take more time given the other two major objectives.  As far as how Cable and Wireless has fared since the controversial acquisition of the majority stake in BTC, Houston said: "We're pleased with progress as it stands at the moment."

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