- CONTRIBUTED
Seen here at Digicel's Trinidad launch are Digicel T&T CEO, Stephen Brewer (left), chairman and founder of Digicel, Denis O'Brien (centre) and Digicel Group CEO, Mr Colm Delves.
Keith Collister, Contributor
A LITTLE OVER a week ago Digicel launched in Trinidad and, according to the Trinidad Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Brewer, the reception so far has been "fantastic," with tens of thousands of phones sold in only four days.
Mr. Brewer says that they have had 18,000 applications for the 300 positions at Digicel Trinidad, including quite a few from the employees of incumbent TSTT (Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago), a partnership between the Trinidad Government (51 per cent) and Cable and Wireless (49 per cent).
Describing himself as "fanatical" about customer service and training in pursuit of "world-class customer care," Mr. Brewer says every new employee must go through training in customer service so that he or she knows everything about the product before he or she is allowed into more specialised areas such as management or sales.
Digicel's billionaire chairman, Irish Entrepreneur Denis O'Brien, believes that "not since our first launch [in Jamaica] have we had so much excitement." In his view, the Trinidad consumer is "highly aware" that a new company is coming to the market, and he personally has been "stunned by the number of customers coming to buy phones already," with penetration so far exceeding his expectations by approximately 50 per cent.
In response to a question from the local media about issues with the local incumbent TSTT concerning interconnection and pricing, he described it as "the usual mumbo jumbo," adding that the consumer was "highly intelligent," and that it was unwise for any carrier to try to "fool the public," who for "so long had paid rip-off prices" in Trinidad. He added that "If TSTT had put the effort into fixing their network that they have put into trying to stop Digicel coming, they would have been much further ahead."
TREMENDOUS SUPPORT
Mr. O'Brien had previously stated that Digicel had first looked at Trinidad in 1999, and had been trying to go to Trinidad for the last three years. Answering the question from the local media, he commented that both the Trinidad Prime Minister and Minister for Telecommunic-ations wanted liberalisation to occur, and that Digicel had received tremendous support from them over the last 60 days preceding the launch. While the interconnection issue was currently under arbitration, chaired by an independent international expert, he described the approach taken by Trinidad's regulatory authority as very professional.
Turning to his expectations of Digicel in Trinidad, Mr. O'Brien, noted that Digicel has built a massive network upfront, going for quality, which could take all TSTT's existing customers and have enough capacity for any expected growth. Referring to the launch last Thursday, he said "The country had achieved a certain amount of liberation ... and this will continue." In fact, he stated that Digicel had already seen a higher uptake of phones in Trinidad than even in their Jamaica or Grenada launches so far.
Interestingly, in a similar fashion to what happened at Digicel's launch five years ago in Jamaica, TSTT's network crashed during the week of Digicel's launch. This was apparently under pressure from increasing numbers due to last- minute cheap or even free phones, and TSTT's service appears to have deteriorated to the point where people - such as this writer's taxi driver - were lining up to switch.
