The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

NEWCO’s national service call centre will be located in Grand Bahama, creating some 30 new jobs for Bahamians in Freeport, officials of the new mobile service provider announced yesterday.

Additionally, the company now has “full interconnectivity” with the BTC and Cable Bahamas networks for the launch of its mobile service throughout the Bahamas, where it has not yet built its cellular mobile network.

The announcements were made at the Ministry for Grand Bahama, where the Minister, Dr Michael Darville, and Ian Rolle, president of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, brought brief remarks.

NewCo will initially employ 22 customer care representatives, and another 18 will be brought on board going into 2017. This will bring the staff total to 81 in the Bahamas.

Patricia Thompson, head of human resources, is confident that of the large submission of resumes they find the best Bahamian talent in Grand Bahama.

“We are very excited to be in Grand Bahama over the next two days … engaging in a recruitment exercise to identify and select a customer care team for our national service centre which will be located in Grand Bahama,” she said.

“In addition to providing cutting edge digital communication, customer care is at the core of our business. Our model is customer-oriented and our commitment is to surpass customer expectations.”

While the announcement of new jobs is good news for Freeport, Damian Blackburn, CEO, revealed the company’s progress to date.

“We are excited to announce that several key milestones occurred last week; two calls were successfully placed using our mobile network - one to BTC and the other to the Cable Bahamas network. We have full interconnectivity with the other two existing telecoms network in The Bahamas.”

Mr Blackburn said this is a “critical and necessary achievement” in laying the foundation for the launch of mobile services.

“Our technical teams are hard at work delivering a world class Bahamas-wide system using cutting edge technology,” he added.

In record time, the company has installed 68 cell sites, of which 49 are active and broadcasting the network. These include 46 cell sites in New Providence and 22 completed in Grand Bahama.

With the network built in Freeport and Eight Mile Rock completed, Mr Blackburn indicated that they are moving with the next phase to install more sites in East and West Grand Bahama.

“We are confident we will have the network build to both sides of the island by end of this year,” he promised.

He said they are expected to meet their roll out coverage at the end of September, and the company is currently mobilising in Abaco.

Mr Blackburn announced that they have also installed backup systems in Freeport that are ready for testing.

“This redundancy system speaks to our core network stability and our unwavering commitment to reliability on our network. With this system in place there will be no system point failure on our core network.

“Our team has also successfully completed testing of voice and SMS platforms with the online charging system. Significant progress was made in terms of installation, integration and testing on several IT platforms,” said the CEO.

Mr Blackburn said that with Cable Bahamas and NewCo’s combined networks, they intend to make Grand Bahama a better place for investment and enhancing the economy.

“We will bring choice, value, and phenomenal service to the Bahamians people,” he said.

Mr Rolle said the Grand Bahama Port Authority looks forward to all the innovation that will result from this new competition in the mobile market space.

He added that the GBPA plans to introduce a number of initiatives that will lead to Freeport becoming a smart city.

“Telecommunication systems play a very important role in the infrastructure of smart cities. We expect the advent of competition in mobile services will assist and boost economic and social development of (Grand Bahama), and by extension in The Bahamas,” he said.

Dr Darville said the historic liberalisation of the cellular industry is another fulfillment of the Christie-led administration.

He said after lengthy negotiations, Cable Bahamas was the successful bidder for the country’s second mobile provider licence. The minister noted that under the terms of the agreement, Holding Company, a 100 per cent owned Bahamian company, will a have majority interest.

“This is once again a demonstration of government’s commitment and effort to develop and diversify the economy while ensuring the interest of the Bahamian people are protected by putting Bahamians in negotiation capability to do work in the industry,” he said.