Starting today post-paid cell phone customers will be able to talk more for less.
On Monday, the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) unveiled its new post-paid packages.
Currently, there are about 47,000 postpaid customers and 249,000 prepaid customers.
But, officials are hoping that more customers will be attracted to the post-paid packages.
As it now stands, pre-paid customers, who spend $20 get 60 minutes of talk time. A customer with a $60 phone card receives 180 minutes of talk time.
But, under the new package, which is available today, a post-paid customer can receive 120 minutes of talk time and 50 free texts for $20.
If a postpaid customer spends $29.99 they will receive 200 minutes plus 100 free texts, for $59.99 they will receive 450 minutes plus 150 free texts; for $99.99 customers will get 800 minutes and 250 free texts and customers who pay $139.99 per month will get 1,200 minutes of talk time and unlimited free texts.
Corporate rates start at $99.99 a month for two subscribers, which include 1,300 minutes and 500 texts. There is a $10 charge for each additional user.
BTC Vice President of Marketing and Branding Marlon Johnson explained that the move represents the third phase of the company’s rate reduction plan.
“What we are in essence doing in a nutshell is adding a tremendous amount of value to our postpaid offering. In the main, our postpaid customers will now get 20 per cent more talk time in their package offerings and all postpaid customers will get a measure of free text messages,” he said during a press conference at BTC’s headquarters.
“This is a significant upgrade and improvement over the existing packages because only two of our top tiers get any free texts.”
BTC’s Chief Executive Officer Geoff Houston said cell phone subscribers can expect more rate reductions.
“We do expect as we go forward to look at the various price packages that we have. We will continue to look for ways to add more value for money. Today, it is all about the postpaid customers and the customers have been crying out a lot more from BTC and this is our signal to say that we are not forgetting about you. Our commitment is to start addressing the prepaid side as well,” he said.
Last weekend, BTC continued its multi-million dollar upgrade of the prepaid system, which introduced a new text platform.
“Previously it was obsolete and unable to address the level of demand in the market and created a lot of customer service issues, particularly with topping up on the weekends. Now we’ve changed that up with a brand new platform in place and quadrupled the texting platform and this allows us to offer a new value to our Bahamian customers,” Mr. Houston said.
The CEO said this new postpaid offering is not a way to wipe out prepaid customers, but to make BTC’s rates on par with its US telecommunications counterparts.
“We all know there are subscribers in the market who take a US number and are almost permanent roamers here in The Bahamas and that is their view that BTC is not the business that they wanted it to be and we want to address that,” Mr. Houston said.
“We know that there are people at home sitting down with a prepaid service and if you look at their usage patterns they would probably save more money if they move on to a postpaid package and certainly as we change the prices today and added more value in those postpaid packages, it certainly makes it more affordable for a certain area in that prepaid market.”
