Chief Executive of Cable and Wireless, Sutcliffe Hodge, told a press briefing on Wednesday, December 7, that one of the matters he was pleased about over the past week was the degree of loyalty the company was receiving from its customers in the face of competition from other telecommunications providers.

L-R: Anthony Monaro, Lester Forman, Ken Guiste and Sutcliffe Hodge

“It actually moves me to emotion,” he said. “I think the people of Anguilla are very conscious of the role that Cable and Wireless has been playing in nation-building over the many years. The fact is we are not just here to make money but we firmly believe that we are a product of Anguilla and the Anguillian community. Cable and Wireless has been operating in Anguilla for some 34 years and over those years we have become fully integrated in just about everything that happens in this island and impacted the lives of everyone here in some form or another.” He took the opportunity to list a number of public sector and community projects the company funded over the years.

Speaking about the competition, he remarked that he was disappointed with some of the new telecommunications offerings and made comparison with those of Cable and Wireless. He said his company’s customers could make international calls for as low as 38 cents per minute to the United States and would show them how that could be done.

“Business for us is fantastic and is growing phenomenally,” Mr. Hodge went on. “We had a product we wanted to put to our customers about two months ago and, because we are…perceived to be the dominant operator, we have not been able to make these products available to our customers which in our mind provide good value for them.” He explained that this service was especially for customers who needed to talk to their loved ones in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. He said regulatory approval was still being awaited.

“The way I feel is that I have my hands shackled behind my back,” he remarked. “That frustrates me a bit, but this is the process and we believe that over the next couple weeks this matter will be resolved and we can move forward.” Mr. Hodge disclosed that the product is called ‘Netspeak’. “It is going to be fantastic, fantastic value for people who really have a need to be in touch with their loved ones in the major markets,” he stated. “One of the things we will have is free on-net calling between customers. We are hoping to have unlimited calling…We were awaiting the launch of products by some of our competitors. They came up short and we were not impressed…We have superior products, superior pricing and greater reliability.”

Vice President for Sales and Mobile, Lester Forman, gave some price changes and other promotional offers which Cable and Wireless will be making in the spirit of Christmas.

The cost of prepaid mobile to mobile service on the company’s GSM and TDN network has been reduced to 49 cents per minute. Mr. Forman reminded customers that when they purchased prepaid minutes from Cable and Wireless they would last for 660 days unlike the service of other providers. “If you buy $25 worth of prepaid, and you don’t use it, it stays on the phone for that period,” he said.

There is currently a Christmas promotion on prepaid. Customers who purchase etop up in denominations of $25 will get an additional $25 of credit on the phone between December 1 and 18.

“We also launched on the first of December our carry-over minutes to post-paid mobile customers,” he continued. “We understand that sometimes customers do not use all their minutes from one month to the next, so we are allowing them to take their unused minutes from the current month and put them in the next month’s total. To add to our Christmas promotion, we will be offering a free handset to pre-paid customers with the purchase of $99 worth of top up.

Forman also said that with the combination of the Smart Choice Plan and 10-10-335, a customer can call the United States for as low as 63 cents per minute during the regular work week. In the evenings, that call can be as low as 50 cents per minute and on the weekend, as low as 38 cents per minute.

Mr. Hodge explained that one of the benefits about that was customers were being billed per second from the time they made the call, rather than for the first minute as some of providers do…With Cable and Wireless, if customers talked for one second, they are billed, for one second as opposed to paying for a full minute.

Mr. Forman also spoke of a mobile reward points system where points could be redeemed at Cable and Wireless locations and used to purchase mobile handsets and accessories. Each month post-paid customers accumulate various points depending on which plan they are on.

Ken Guiste, Vice President Mobile for the North Area including Anguilla, BVI, Cayman, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos, also spoke at the press briefing. “I think it is very important to understand that Cable and Wireless is about choice. I welcome competition because what that does is focuses on customer expectations and delivering those expectations,” he commented. “I also think it is important to understand that the people who are running this business are local people acquainted with the local customer base and have an ear for the customer. It is also important to understand that we are looking to work very closely to increase the customer perception and customer service in Anguilla.”

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