The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Aliv’s top executive has thrown down a challenge to the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), saying he sees nothing in its product offerings worth imitating.

Damian Blackburn, signalling the intensifying competition between the new mobile operator and its incumbent rival, told Tribune Business: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and so far we’ve seen no need to imitate them.”

Mr Blackburn’s comments came as he laid out Aliv’s plans for seizing a 47 per cent mobile market share within three years, saying that the company had to-date given Bahamians just a taste of its capabilities.

He told this newspaper that Aliv was focused on developing services, and applications, “to make the customer’s life easier” both at home and at work.

“We need to carry on with all the tricks we’re coming out with,” Mr Blackburn said, explaining that Aliv’s business model is founded on “quality of service, staying ahead on best practices, offering the fastest speed, no dropped calls, an excellent service and other innovative ways to stay ahead”.

Pointing to WhatsApp customer care as one example of innovation, Mr Blackburn said Aliv would constantly seek to provide value-added services to its subscribers, who currently number around 50,000.

The second mobile operator, he added, plans to provide customers of its newly-launched corporate services with the ability to impose credit limits on individual employees’ usage, along with self-reporting functions that can be used by a company’s accounting department.

“These are value-added features to make the customer’s life easier,” Mr Blackburn said. “We’ll be very focused on keeping moving in that space.”

He added that Aliv’s technology had already changed how the mobile operator itself works, with no paper invoices and documents cluttering its offices.

Vendors and others it does business with are asked to send all paperwork electronically, making Aliv a ‘paperless’ business, with its employees communicating primarily via the WhatsApp messaging medium.

“We have forced ourselves to work wirelessly,” Mr Blackburn said, “and we’re well-placed to bring these services to other people in the workplace, giving this added value, and will repeat for the home.”

He emphasised that Aliv was just as focused on “the home space” as businesses, and was looking to enhance Bahamian lifestyles through applications such as wireless temperature and TV controls through smart phones connected to its network.

“What you’re seeing now is the basis of what we’re doing,” Mr Blackburn added. “We will evolve from there into more exciting things.”

Aliv has even invested in its own hovercraft, which it plans to take to all regattas held throughout the Bahamas, in a bid to reinforce its brand message and continue to the process of acquiring customers.

Revealing that Aliv is working to a five-year plan, Mr Blackburn said the company was still in its capital-intensive phase of building a nationwide network infrastructure and acquiring subscribers to give it meaningful market share and revenues.

“We’ve sunk a lot of money into the ground, which is normal and all part of the progression,” he explained of Aliv’s moves to-date.

“We’ve invested money in acquiring customers and the switch over [from BTC to Aliv]. There are costs to acquiring subscribers, but once all that happens, the profits and cash flow comes back to pay back people who lend you money to complete the project, and then the returns the shareholders deserve.

“A second operator entering a market like this is a five-year plan,” Mr Blackburn continued. “You can’t judge success or default on a quarterly soundbites. It’s a long-term gain.”

Aliv began life with $136 million in start-up financing from its two shareholders, the Government-owned HoldingCo, which has the majority 51.75 per cent equity stake, and BISX-listed Cable Bahamas, which holds the remainder.

The new mobile operator has also received $50 million in vendor financing from its main technology and electronics supplier, Huawei, and is currently seeking to raise an additional $50 million from a combination of a $30 million bond issue and bank credit.

Should the bond offering be successful, Aliv will have raised more some $236 million to finance its network build-out and initial operations prior to turning a profit, which it expects will occur in its 2019 financial year - the third one of its existence.

Barry Williams, Aliv’s chief financial officer, told Tribune Business that the new mobile operator’s entrance was likely to grow the Bahamian market overall, rather than shrink it, given the pent-up demand for new services.

“We’ve seen it in other markets where the second entrant comes in,” he said. “There’s a perception that the market actually increases. We fully expect that there is likely to be some increase or expansion of the market just by the fact of us entering into this marketplace.

“We’ve not ourselves been taking the position that there will be a shrinkage of the market. We think there’s likely to be growth in the market.”

BTC has served notice that it will not give away its market dominance, created by the long-standing mobile monopoly, easily.

A statement last week from the company, now controlled by Liberty Global, indicated it plans to introduce new customer product and service offerings in response to Aliv’s market entrance.