The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Aliv’s top executive says its business model is shifting from “growth at all costs” as it targets a mobile market share “in the mid-40 percent” range by the 2020 half-way mark.

Damian Blackburn, in a recent interview with Tribune Business, said the cellular operator is moving away from the discounts and promotions previously employed to attract subscribers towards what he termed “sensible growth”.

With Aliv having “build a brand position that is second to none in The Bahamas” in less than three years since its launch, Mr Blackburn said it was now poised to further expand its existing 151,395 customer base and 38 percent market share.

He disclosed that Aliv plans to “up the ante” on its network this financial year, which began on July 1, by investing around $10m - especially in areas where there is high demand for data - to improve the customer experience.

The Bahamian operator is also “keeping a close eye” on global developments around 5G, the next generation of mobile technology, even though Mr Blackburn suggested this was unlikely to become “commercially available” until 2022.

Voicing “100 percent confidence” that Aliv remains on course to become EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) positive before the 2019 year-end, he said the company had “turned the peak” of the challenges presented by its capital-intensive financing needs.

Mr Blackburn pledged that Aliv will “not take on levels of debt that are unsustainable”, while pointing to the fact that it had made $185m in capital investments to-date. Besides the initial $62m licence payment, he said some $123m had been spent on developing “world-class 4.5G networks and systems” that now covered the entire Bahamas.

“We’re still growing nicely,” Mr Blackburn told Tribune Business. “On a customer base of 151,395 at the end of June, we’d estimate market share at 38 percent. We had a great last quarter and are growing in all segments.

“We think we’ll get to the mid-40s in market share this year. It’s not growth at all costs any more. It’s sensible growth. We believe we’ve built a brand proposition that is second to none in The Bahamas, and we need to commit as a team - and do every day - meet these brand standards.

“We have set out high standards on the network, high standards on innovation, and believe if the Bahamian team continues to meet that every day then customers will want to join the Aliv message.”

Aliv will likely face a harder battle to win mobile market share from the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) as competition between the two providers starts to settle down, and the latter moves more effectively than before to combat its upstart rival’s threat.

Garfield ‘Garry’ Sinclair’, BTC’s chief executive, told Tribune Business last week that he believed the incumbent carrier had hit “a plateau” in terms of mobile subscriber losses to Aliv. He said BTC was “well ahead” of its target to cut 2019 customer defections to half the rate of the previous year.

While Aliv and its controlling shareholder, Cable Bahamas, which holds Board and management control via its 48.25 percent equity stake, are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of the present labour discord at BTC, Mr Blackburn declined to comment on the controversies currently plaguing his main rival.

Focusing on his own business instead, the Aliv chief said he was now focused on upgrading operations following completion of the carrier’s initial network build-out and growth phase.

“We’re looking at transforming the way we’re operating,” Mr Blackburn told this newspaper. “We’re two-and-a-half years in, and are out of the launch and build-out phase of the business. We’re looking at how we transform for efficiency and effectiveness, and make the customer experience as effective as it can be, meeting those needs.

“This year we will be upping the ante on the network, investing in the order of $10m in the network. We have capital investment plans, and are focused on areas where there is a lot of demand for data and places where our wireless broadband offering has done well in the Family Islands. The network will be significantly upgraded.”

Looking further afield, Mr Blackburn added: “We’re keeping a close eye on 5G. We don’t think it will become commercially available until 2022, but we’re keeping a close eye on everything that’s going on.

“We’ve very focused on the network. We’ve deployed 4.5G Long Term Evolution advanced technology as the standard. It’s the best possible network you can deploy right now, and we have deployed it on half the network sites. As we deepen the network we will be rolling it out to more and more sites.”

The Aliv chief said “great customer feedback” had been received following the relaunch of its pre-paid mobile plan offering, which was designed to make purchasing by consumers “simpler” through the inclusion of VAT in a single price.

“You pay a round number at the point of sale instead of having to scramble for change,” he added,” and there is more data, so there is more value than in the old plans, along with two new plans and completely new price points.”

Aliv’s new plans include the $4 per day ‘Day Plan’, aimed at regular wi-fi users who want access to data when they go out, and the ‘$30 for 30 days’ monthly plan. Mr Blackburn said the value-added proposition has been further enhanced by making calls and texts to other Aliv customers free - a feature that will benefit almost 40 percent of the market.

Praising his team’s execution of the pre-paid relaunch, Mr Blackburn said Aliv had also received “amazing feedback” on its newly-launched advertising campaign that was conceived working alongside the Independence Day Committee.

Directed and produced, respectively, by Kareem Mortimer and Henrietta Cartwright, who are both Bahamians, the Aliv chief said this will “lead into a bigger campaign this summer”. He added that Aliv was also performing well in the post-paid and among corporate customers.

“It’s been an incredible journey,” Mr Blackburn told Tribune Business of Aliv’s near-three years in business. “We had a vision of precisely what we wanted to do - a world-class network, superior service and customer value. We’ve delivered on those commitments, and people possibly don’t understand the amount of effort made by this Bahamian team and the whole project at Aliv.

“There’s a lot of hard work and commitment gone into it, and I’m very proud of all of them for embracing the challenge. We look forward to carrying on the journey. It’ll be a bit different the next phase; it always is, but I have every confidence we will support and deliver to the customers out there.”

Reaffirming that Aliv remained on target to hit its financial milestones in accordance with global mobile industry benchmarks, Mr Blackburn said the operator and its shareholders - Cable Bahamas and the Government - were always conscious about not loading up the business with unsustainable debt.

“We’re 100 percent confident we will hit positive EBITDA in the next six months, before the end of the calendar year and within three years of launch,” he added. “We’re not going to take on levels of debt that are unsustainable for the business.

“We’re getting to the peak of that challenge, and have turned the peak. We constantly look at the different options for financing, the structure of the balance sheet and what’s appropriate. We keep our ear close to the ground on the different options, and work very closely with our shareholders on these decisions. We don’t make them independently.”