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Photo by Walter P. Berry Jr.
Mr. Marlon Johnson VP of Marketing and Mr. Leon Williams Acting President and CEO of BATELCO |
Leon R. Williams, who heads state-owned Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), urges his managers to “think outside the box” to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-changing telecommunications business.
“If you are not walking on the edge, then you are taking up too much space,” says Williams, who has guided Nassau-based BTC and its 1,200 employees through a significant transformation over the past few years. This includes the installation of major infrastructure as well as a new focus on customer service and marketing. “Let’s do it and if something goes wrong, let’s have a Plan B,” Williams likes to tell employees. A veteran BTC senior executive, Williams began serving as president and chief executive officer in December 2005.
Visitors to The Bahamas take for granted that they can use their Blackberries, obtain high-speed Internet access and obtain roaming signals on their cell phones. Altogether, cell phones from about 60 counties utilizing some 95 networks can pick up roaming signals in The Bahamas. In addition, BTC cell phones equipped with GSM can roam in those countries. And thanks to the recent addition of CDMA Roaming service, users of Sprint and Verizon cell phones can get seamless coverage at most major tourist-oriented areas.
Not only do tourists and business people welcome such improvements, they’re dramatically changing the lives of ordinary Bahamians. Last year, for instance, construction was completed on a $60 million undersea fiber-optic cable, allowing 14 Bahamian islands to obtain broadband service.
And a fiber-optic cable costing $6.1 million was laid between the Bahamian Islands of Bimini and Grand Bahama, replacing a microwave system that Bimini’s residents had utilized.
“Now that the infrastructure is in place, for example, we will be able to link up eight schools on the major islands and bring them into a network center,” Williams said. “And we can take the medical clinics (on the islands) and bring them all into a multimedia center into the main hospital in New Providence.”
Such infrastructure improvements will mean more profits for BTC in the future and spur economic development, Williams noted. “Access to communications and to the Internet is the great equalizer that guarantees our democracy,” he recently observed, when announcing that Blackberry and GSM services were available on Long Island, located 200 miles southeast of Nassau, the capital.
Besides connecting Bahamian islands, the fiber-optic cable has been extended to Port au Prince, Haiti, paving the way for The Bahamas to become a regional communications hub as other islands and regions are linked to the cable.
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Photo by Walter P. Berry Jr.
U.S. TV journalists reporting from outside the courthouse in Nassau. |
For BTC or any telecommunications company, The Bahamas presents formidable challenges because it’s an archipelago of some 700 islands – not a single landmass, noted Williams.
“If someone’s phone is out of order in New Providence, it costs $15 to repair,” he explained, referring to the most populated island, which is home to Nassau. On distant islands, Williams noted, making a simple repair involves “flying out a technician and putting him in a hotel for the duration of the work, which substantially increases the cost of any repair.”
Nevertheless, BTC has a mandate to provide affordable service to Bahamians no matter where they live, and at the same cost. Accordingly, Williams said, “BTC has to be creative enough to find a way to deliver telecommunications that’s affordable.” Doing this is vital to The Bahamas ongoing tourism development, which involves some 53 projects worth $13 billion. And this includes developing the idyllic and outlying Family Islands, as they’re called.
Twelve years ago, the government announced its intention to privatize BTC by selling a 49 percent stake of the firm to a private telecommunications company, which then would capitalize BTC. In recent years, news reports have noted that a deal was imminent. In the meantime – not wanting to be left in “the dark ages in terms of technology,” William said – BTC added modern telecommunications infrastructure and restructured itself.
The privatization initiative started under a government led by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and his Free National Movement government. The effort continued when Prime Minister Perry Christie’s Progressive Liberal Party was elected five years ago. Last May, Ingraham returned to power.
According to BTC’s most recent annual report, the firm had a net profit of
$34.3 million in 2005 compared to $8.3 million the previous year. And for 2005, total operating revenues increased 7.1 percent, reaching a record $293.8 million. The profits were fueled significantly by BTC’s growing wireless business -- including prepaid cellular, cellular roaming, and high-speed Internet business, Williams observed.
At the same time, Williams noted that private telephone providers now competing with BTC had caused it to see some declines in revenue in its traditional fixed line and long-distance services.
“However, solid progress in our growth business areas more than offset the declines in our traditional businesses, as our number of cellular subscribers in 2005 reached 227,771, an increase in 22 percent over 2004 levels,” he pointed out. “Revenue contribution from cellular operations from the year ended 2005 was $180.8 million, and represented an increase of 43 percent over the previous year.”
The 2006 annual report will be out soon, and Williams said “I can assure you, the audited numbers for 2006 are much better than 2005.”
According to the International Telecommunications Union, The Bahamas, in respect to digital connectivity, ranks as No.1 in the Caribbean; No. 3 in The Americas; and No. 37 in the world. Having completed some of its major infrastructure work, BTC is adjusting course.
“We’re now changing our focus and becoming a market-led company as opposed to being technologically-driven,” Williams said. BTC’s goal is to “exceed customer expectations,” he added.
Alfredo Delara, a photojournalist who recently visited Nassau for a major U.S. television network said, “High-speed Internet is easy to find now, but it was nearly impossible to find a couple of years ago.” He was among a half-dozen broadcast journalists outside the courthouse in Nassau, sitting among laptops, cell phones, and other gadgets that were tapping into wireless signals emanating from the courthouse. They were able to beam their reports directly back to the United States. “It’s helping us to get our job done a lot quicker and a lot faster,” said Delara. |
