CABLE & WIRELESS Jamaica (C&WJ) has added 150,000 new customers to its mobile network within the last four months, and has embarked on a major expansion drive to increase its cell sites to 133 by September this year, with another 40 sites between October 2001 and February 2002.
With the number of new customers, C&WJ has seen its customer base move up to 352,000, surpassing its projected target of 250,000 mobile customers by the end of March 2001.
Speaking in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week, senior vice-president for mobile at C&WJ, Stephen Twomey, said the company currently operates 94 cell sites and would add another 39 by September. Of the number, 21 will be capacity sites, and the other 18 will be new coverage sites with a focus on rural areas.
Earlier this year, C&WJ said it would be spending some $2 billion to improve its mobile network, on the heels of plans by two mobile telephone players - Digicel Jamaica and Centennial Digital Jamaica - to enter the Jamaican market during the first quarter this year.
Mr. Twomey, noting that there was justification in customers' criticisms of C&WJ for its sometimes poor mobile service reception, was apologetic and said that "we are committed to solving the problem, but it's just that it is taking more time than anticipated."
He said they would be upgrading the entire mobile system to include switches, its pre-paid and cellie mail platforms, as well as putting in place a new voice mail system and retool the network to provide for more capacity.
Mr. Twomey said that during the expansion period there might be periods in which it will be difficult to make calls, but appealed to customers to "understand that a lot of work is being done and it's all geared to improving the system."
According to C&WJ senior vice-president, the company which up to now had been the island's monopoly voice carrier, has spent some $7 billion over the last three years to upgrade the system, "and we're looking to invest more this year" to stay ahead of the competition.
He admitted that they did not anticipate the huge expansion seen in the customer base since December 1, 2000, and that its projected figure of 250,000 by the end of March, 2001, was predicated on the launching of both Digicel and Centennial by December 2000.
"The assumption was that Mossel (now Digicel) and Centennial would be operational by Christmas (2000), but they did not get off the ground and therefore sales kicked off for us," Mr. Twomey said, noting that February was also set as a launching period for the new mobile players.
However, Mr. Twomey said C&WJ was committed to continue to invest and expand its technical network "to give customers the service they deserve."
He also used the opportunity to respond to claims that the company was using part of its business to subsidise its mobile network, arguing that it was a common practice around the world for Governments to encourage monopoly telecommunications companies to use international calls to subsidise domestic calls.
Their competitor contends that C&WJ was using other business to subsidise its rates, but Mr. Twomey suggested that because the business was growing, "we can pass on the savings to customers in terms of the call rate."
Last week, C&WJ launched a new mobile service, "Readi Cellie", which will offer a special call rate of $10 per minute, down from $13, and provides for customers to pay a one-time connection/service fee for a mobile telephone. He said current holders of pre-paid accounts would also be able to benefit from the reduced price on "Readi Cellie" under an "Ever Readi" programme in which customers pay a one-time fee to switch over.
He said that initially, the reduction in call rate would incur a cost to the company, but "the more you drop the call rates the more people will make calls and therefore you make up for it in volume."
With Digicel set to come on stream within days, Mr. Twomey said he welcomed "the competition because competition is healthy" and will in the medium to long term make C&WJ a better company.
He said that over the next three to four months C&WJ would be introducing a number of different types of services which "should be fun" to customers and promised the company's critics that "the network problems are going to be fixed."
