Bahamas News

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) has launched a new feature – international texting – as part of an expansion in cell phone services designed to keep up with customer expectations.

It means Bahamian cell phone users will be able to text persons on other networks such as DigiCell, Cable and Wireless, AT& T, Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile.

Marlon Johnson, Vice President of Marketing, Sales & Business Development, told the Bahama Journal the demand for new features is extremely high, both on the cell phone side and land-line services.

BTC did a soft launch on the new service on Wednesday, but Mr. Johnson explained that there would be a phased approach to full implementation.

He said the introductory rate for the new service will be 15 cents for this month only and then it will go up to 25 cents.

“The 25-cent rate is the standard rate across the region for texting customers in other jurisdictions. We felt necessary to add this feature as we are moving away from the TDMA system to the GSM system,” he said.

The complete crossover is expected to take place by the end of September.

“Eventually we hope to expand the service to include over 200 countries and more telephone networks but we just want to test it right now with those few networks,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Johnson explained that once a person has text messaging on their cell phone they would automatically be able to access the service.

“We are trying to evolve as a company and need to be able to meet our customers needs,” he said. “In that effort we are about to launch some new features to provide better customer services.”

Mr. Johnson said BTC would be launching more of these new features this month pending approval from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

“We are trying to create new rates for late night talking and the like and also to give bonus minutes for persons who buy a certain denomination phone card,” he said.

“The higher the denomination of minutes you buy, we will give you an extra bucket of minutes because we are trying to do that to reward customers who have been very loyal to us.”

Mr. Johnson also told the Journal that the company is upgrading its voicemail platform services for cell phones and land line systems.

“We are asking customers to go through their voicemail systems and take out any important information they need because we are going to upgrade the system. What will happen is that messages more than seven days old will be automatically deleted,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Johnson said he would advise customers to start looking at their voicemails as of Friday before the automatic deletion takes place in the company’s system.

He also said that passwords and access numbers would stay the same.

Source: Bahama Journal