New Payphones Here

Gene Thompson	Alee Fa’amoe

by Brian Buckley

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

Blue Sky Communications is now providing competition for Cable & Wireless with more than 40 international payphones placed in high-tourist traffic areas, including downtown George Town, the Turtle Farm, and along Seven Mile Beach.

More of the international payphones, which are in blue boxes, will be installed in the near future, according to Michael Stomps, Operations Manager of Blue Sky. “We started installing them in April,” he said. “We plan to install another fifty of these international phones, all at high-tourist locations,”

Blue Sky Communications is owned by the Crighton and Thompson families. Gene Thompson, a director of the company, referred to the phones as Home Country Direct Pay Phones. “This home country phone is a tourist-based product,” he said. “We are not in the hotels with these international phones just yet, but we are working toward that end.”

These blue Home Country Direct Pay Phones are available for collect, calling card, and credit card calls. Mr Stomps said that the rates for these calls are based on AT&T Home Country rates. “It depends where you are calling to and how you are paying. Obviously, calling Zimbabwe would be more expensive than calling Miami,” he said.

Blue Sky also has plans for the local Cayman market in the near future, believing the country is currently lacking in the number of payphones and wants to meet the needs of customers who sometimes need to get to payphones quickly. To that end, Blue Sky recently installed two local pay phones at the Marriott Resort and the Comfort Suites Hotel.

At the moment, Blue Sky purchases minutes from AT&T Wireless and Digicel and resells them. They are currently in talks with Cable & Wireless for additional minutes.

Cable & Wireless is currently the only other provider of payphone service in the Cayman Islands. Alee Fa’amoe, Vice-President of Broadband Services for C&W, noted, “We have about ten international boxes located at the cruise ship terminal where tourists off the ships can use any major credit card, call collect, or use a phone company calling card that connects them to their provider. These phones are there to save the tourists money as calls from the cruise ships are quite expensive.” These phones have the look of a courtesy phone more than a typical phone booth phone.

C&W also has a communication station at the North Terminal providing these hotline phones and Internet services. In addition, at the Cardinall Avenue Cable & Wireless Communications Station, customers can use the Internet and regular payphones.

In terms of local payphones, Cable & Wireless has 250 placed on the three islands.

Mr Fa’amoe shared that Cable & Wireless has halted any major expansion of payphone services. “Due to vandalism and the effects of weather, they have become expensive to maintain. In addition gaining the planning permission is so costly. Every time we want to put in a payphone, we have to consult the adjacent land owners. Each installation ends up costing the company several thousands of dollars for the cement, electrical work, consultation fees, and architectural services.”

In comparing the international phone rates of Blue Sky Communications and Cable & Wireless, Mr Fa’aome reported that C&W’s calling rates for their phones at the port are priced at five percent below the AT&T Home Country Rates, which makes C&W 5 percent less expensive than Blue Sky.

“But it important to keep in mind that we are very concerned about the price-gouging by the other company’s phones. We have made some calls on their phones and the first minute came out to roughly $20. Our first minute is only a quarter of that, maybe $4 or $5 dollars,” said Mr Fa’aome.

He continued on saying that several tourists, upon receiving their bills for calls made on the new Blue Sky Home Country Direct Pay Phones, contacted Cable & Wireless to file consumer complaints, thinking erroneously Cable & Wireless was the provider. “We are very concerned about this,” Mr Fa’aome said.

David Archbold, Managing Director for the Information and Communications, Technology Authority (ICTA) said he is unaware of any other providers seeking to enter the payphone market at this time, but that should not prevent others from doing so.

Although Blue Sky Home Country Direct Phones did not connect to 911 when first installed, the company said they would as of this week.

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