TSTT B-Mobile revolution in TT today

In expressing its confidence about the positive impact which B-Mobile will have on the local telecommunications sector, TSTT’s vice-president (mobile phone services) Ian Joseph told Newsday on Friday that TSTT is equally optimistic that B-Mobile will form a key component in the efforts of local businesses that are currently branching out into the wider Caribbean in search of new economic opportunities and attempting to establish a regional footprint for themselves and the country.

In an exclusive interview with Newsday, Joseph said, "B-Mobile is really an opportunity to open a new chapter for TSTT. It is a brand that was utilised by Cable and Wireless for their mobile service offering in the rest of the region. When we look at it, and what we were trying to achieve, we felt that we wanted to set a new stage upon which our customers would have a new experience. This is not just a cosmetic change. This was not minor surgery but major surgery. "

Indicating that the launch of B-Mobile was one of the main objectives of TSTT’s ongoing $1 billion upgrade of its GSM network and will initially target a customer base of one million persons, Joseph said now was the right time to launch B-Mobile because of the significant improvements which TSTT has done to its network and its customer service. He added that the launch of B-Mobile in TT is predicated on a high performance network, excellent customer service and new products and services that are a lot more value-added. "To do something like this, you to do it on a solid foundation," Joseph said.

In terms of pricing, TSTT’s B-Mobile offers customers lower rates and new plans to make phone usage much easier. B-Mobile’s prepaid packages for example, offer rates as low as 50 cents per minute on weekends. B-Mobile offers new value-added services such as Credit Me (allowing prepaid customers to request an emergency top-up from another mobile customer when they have no money on their phone and "buzz" which gives customers the latest updates in the world of news, entertainment, music and sports.) B-Mobile, according to Joseph, has revolutionised the roaming feature of mobile phones, allowing its user to make phone calls in over 100 countries (in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia) and locations. "This allows us to redefine our organisation in terms of geographic boundaries. B-Mobile as a TT proposition can be extended throughout the region to B-Mobile where Cable and Wireless has other operating entities," Joseph said.

He said B-Mobile also has significant implications for the activities of local companies that are expanding their operations within the region to take advantage of opportunities being created by the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and other economic initiatives. Joseph was optimistic that B- Mobile could allow TSTT to develop a "tailor package" for these businesses. Noting that the public has been fed some advertising teasers in the media about B-Mobile over the last month, Joseph said this campaign will become "very aggressive" in the coming days. The B-Mobile promotion campaign will include for the first time in TT, the use of a hot-air balloon which will make regular flights to different parts of the country. The balloon is the property of Canadian company, Sundance Balloons International Ltd, and arrived in TT over the weekend.

In addition to Trincity Mall, Joseph said B-Mobile retail centres will be also established at Library Corner in San Fernando, Chacon Street in Port-of-Spain, Gulf City Shopping Complex in La Romaine and in Tobago. While today’s launch of B-Mobile will catch the attention of many people in TT, Joseph said the B-Mobile system must not be seen as a done deal but rather a platform for the launch of other new services from TSTT. These include the Blackberry mobile phone (said to be great for the corporate executive on the go) and the introduction of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular technology in TT. TSTT plans to introduce Blackberry by the end of November and hopes to launch its CDMA service in December. Joseph said CDMA (the principal mobile phone service being offered by local telecom company LaqTel), is the dominant mobile phone technology at this time for data services while GSM is the dominant technology for voice mail.

Asked whether plans by Irish telecom company Digicel to launch Blackberry in November would cause confusion among local mobile phone customers, Joseph did not believe this would happen. TSTT’s plans to launch Blackberry were definitive and the company’s approach is to provide "value to our customers." "This is what our customers have been asking for," he stated.