New Providence, The Bahamas, December 3, 2008 - "Beginning this past Sunday, our customers in New Providence should have seen significant improvements in the quality of their mobile telephone calls, as we turned up our enhanced GSM service," said Kirk Griffin, BTC's Acting President & CEO. "But I want to point out as well", he continued, "that the exercise is far from over as we will continue to monitor traffic and make adjustments until we are satisfied that the service level of mobile calls are where they should be. But even now, as customers move through Nassau, they should see better coverage and fewer drop calls. They should see greater signal strength on their cell phones, meaning a better quality of service".
Over the last two weeks, BTC continued its aggressive GSM Expansion Project by completing the installation of the new 850 MHz overlay in New Providence, further testing and optimization is expected to continue during January.
Senior Manager for Project Management, Nigel Smith said "While the initial installation of the 850 MHz network was completed on November 30, work is still ongoing that will put the network in the final configuration that addresses issues related to coverage and dropped calls. The overall completion of the entire GSM expansion project is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2009."
BTC started an online web-form on November 17 to involve its customers in telling the company where service is not at acceptable levels'. "We have received many positive responses and a lot of constructive feedback from our customers. This has helped us tremendously in identifying areas where we need to do additional work." said Griffin. The web-form can be found on the homepage of the corporate website www.btcbahamas.com, where customers can log information detailing where they are having issues with GSM anywhere in the country. Customers completing the form will be eligible to win a Black Berry Bold, phone cards and much more.
BTC began its current GSM Expansion Project in early 2007. Thus far the company has invested millions of dollars to ensure that its service is on par with international standards.
In addition to investing in the network, the company has continued to make its services more affordable and accessible to all.
"What we have done over the last two years is a testament to our mission and vision. In 2007 BTC placed GSM services in all additional Family Islands. We reduced the rate for SIM cards to $15.00 from $50.00. We introduced the $49.99 phone sale, which included a phone, SIM card and a phone card. In 2008, we had our Mad-Minutes' campaign where customers received more than their regular bucket of minutes for the same price. We launched pre-paid roaming, and our customers can now use their phones in South Florida. We also reduced the rate for text messaging to five cents per text and introduced international text messaging at fifteen cents per text. And just yesterday BTC we brought Christmas cheer to our all of our mobile subscribers, providing them with caller ID, call waiting, multi-party calling and voicemail absolutely free!" Griffin continued.
Customers are encouraged to continue to tell the company exactly where they are experiencing difficulties with their GSM service. This method will help the company to make great strides in ensuring that GSM will blanket the islands increasing cell density, providing better call quality, stronger signals, and more coverage while making the network more accessible. |