We're ready to rumble!
GT&T prepared for DIGICEL marketing challenge
Stabroek News
December 1, 2006
The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) anticipates a "showdown" with DIGICEL for control of the country's cellular service market and is fully prepared to engage the region's largest service provider in the competition that lies ahead.
"We're ready! We have been preparing for the competition and we will do what it takes to effectively engage DIGICEL," Sales and Marketing Director Michael George told Stabroek Business in an exclusive interview last Tuesday. And in what is perhaps the opening salvo in the anticipated marketing tussle George challenged DIGICEL to provide any service in the cellular range that is not already being provided by GT&T. "The only thing that is really new about our competitor is the novelty of its newness," George said.
'We are by no means underestimating the seriousness of the competition. DIGICEL is the largest service provider in the region and brings with it the status of being the official sponsors of West Indies cricket and the current regional football tournament. We recognize that the challenge is one of a different magnitude to that previously provided by U-Mobile and we are prepared to meet that challenge," George told Stabroek Business.
While declining to disclose specific details of the company's marketing blueprint to meet the anticipated DIGICEL challenge George hinted at the aggressive initiation of advertising, sponsorship and product promotion campaigns designed to win and retain customer loyalty. He disclosed that GT&T had already increased its marketing and advertising budget to respond to the competition and that even the existing increased budget was "flexible" and subject to adjustment to meet further marketing contingencies.
At the end of October GT&T had an estimated 280,000 - mostly GSM - cellular service customers and the aggressive GSM marketing initiative currently underway among cellular phone vendors signals moves by GT&T to convert its remaining TDMA customers to its GSM service before DIGICEL puts its own marketing show "on the road."
A year ago GT&T's GSM cellular service suffered major technical glitches that disrupted cell phone traffic during the critical Christmas period resulting in widespread public criticism of its network.
Asked whether the anticipated increase in seasonal traffic could see last year's problems being repeated George said that the Company's investment in enhancing its cell sites in the Georgetown core had ensured that there would be no repetition of the difficulties that occurred last year.
Since last year's difficulties GT&T has "turned up" new cellular sites at Stabroek, TUC-Ville, Campbellville, Light Street and Stabroek, resulting in a turnaround in the quality of its GSM service in the Georgetown core. Another cellular site located on the premises of the Theatre Guild in Kingston is due to be commissioned on December 15 .
George said that the continual enhancement of the quality of the service being offered by GT&T was an integral part of its quest to secure customer loyalty. "We understand that when all marketing hype and hoopla is over the service provider must match marketing with a product that wins customer approval. It is the service provider that is best able to satisfy customer requirements that will do well in the marketplace," George added.
Meanwhile, GT&T's Chief Executive Officer Major General (retd) Joe Singh told Stabroek Business in a separate interview that the company's marketing pursuits will not allow it to lose sight of its critical responsibility to view the service that it provides in the broader context of the country's development. He pointed to the arrangement with the Theatre Guild for the location of a cellular site on its Kingston premises as an example of the company's interest in linking its own service enhancement programme with broader development pursuits. Under the arrangement for the siting of a GT&T cell tower on the premises of the Theatre Guild the historic local playhouse will receive $5m of which $2m has already been handed over. The remainder will be paid over a twenty year period. "When we consider the contribution that such an arrangement can make to the rehabilitation of the Theatre Guild it provides an example of the framework of corporate responsibility within which GT&T seeks to operate," Singh said.
Singh told Stabroek Business that the company was working with "cutting edge technology" to provide a service that was second to none and that the end objective was to provide a 'seamless" cellular service across the country. He said that the company was now preoccupied with covering the "gaps" in its service in order to ensure the realization of that seamlessness.
In outlining the recent achievements of the company in its quest to continually upgrade its cellular service Singh said that during the current year the company had completed the network requirements for the Georgetown core and that it was currently working with Northern Telecoms (NORTEL) to optimize the service by synchronizing the facilities.
Meanwhile GT&T has recently taken delivery of a Cellular On Wheels (COW) facility which, Singh says, will be strategically deployed to provide additional cover at public events where excessive cell phone use is anticipated. A second, larger COW service is being brought into the country early next year.
Singh also briefed Stabroek Business on the consolidation of GT&T's rural and interior cellular expansion.
Among the initiatives included in the rural and interior cellular service build out are the erection of a 400-ft mast at Mahdia next year and the improvement of the existing GSM facility at Lethem.
The corporation's cellular expansion programme also includes the erection of three new sites in Essequibo, a cellular facility at Moleson Creek and a second cellular site in Linden early next year. Gt&T is also working with the Ministries of Local Government and Amerindian Affairs to establish remote radio facilities in the interior.
Meanwhile Singh also disclosed that GT&T is working to replace a number of fixed wireless services in parts of the country including south and north Georgetown and the West Bank and West Coast Demerara.
According to the GT&T Chief Executive Officer the move to replace the existing fixed wireless telephone infrastructure resulted from the fact that the technology had become outdated. A decision on the replacement equipment to be used will be taken early next year.
To date Atlantic Tele Network has invested US$260m in its local telecommunications programme.