TeleBermuda Launches InternetService, Cuts Long-distance Rates
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The Bermuda Sun
Touting the virtues of "level playingfield" competition in the telecommunications marketplace,TeleBermuda's general manager James Fitzgerald yesterday announceda new Internet service and new rates for long distance calls thatcut through the fog of multiple-rate plans. The suite of new programmesalso include improved volume discounts for corporate clients.
"Our mandate is to provide the best quality service in Bermuda,"said Fitzgerald. He promised "new creative and inventiveservices" in coming weeks that will further reduce telecommunicationscosts. Long distance callers in Bermuda now have a single rate- 39 cents (US) a minute - to the U.S., U.K. and Canada 24 hoursa day, seven days a week. Calls to the rest of the world can behad for 89 cents a minute.
The service, marketed as "Simply the Best", comes witha monthly price tag of US$4.99. TeleBermuda's lowest rates - forcalls over the holidays - are 32 cents a minute. Rates for callsduring the day have, until now, been around 89 cents a minute.
TBI spokesperson Jim Ivey said that thehope was to draw in more customers and increase average numberof calls per customer. Demand had so far not been price elastic,he said. Customers had traditionally accepted lower rates andkept their savings, he said. But at these new rates "we trulybelieve folks will want to talk longer and more frequently,"he told the Bermuda Sun.
The new rates "bring us within a dimeof those callback guys," he said. Callback services likeGlobaltel are illegal in Bermuda, but are believed to be makinginroads into the market. Globaltel callback rates are advertisedon the Internet as being between 24.5 cents to 27 cents a minuteto Canada, the U.S. and U.K.
The "Simply the Best'' programme, saidIvey, is "legal. There are no PIN numbers" and no 800(toll free) numbers to dial. "It's a better way to go."TBI is also offering automatic billing by credit or debit card.
The new corporate volume discount packagecan yield additional savings of between 15 and 40 per cent, saidFitzgerald. Fitzgerald told a press conference that the days of20 cents a minute rates from Bermuda are on the horizon. "Idon't know if we will ever see rates of 10 cents a minute,"he said. "But we envision rates of 20 cents or maybe lower.Who would have thought 10 years ago that rates would be 10 cents,and lower in the U.S.?"
Tbi-Net, the new Internet service, willoffer dedicated lines for corporate clients and a dial-up servicefor residential customers - both at significantly reduced ratesthan currently available. Basic rates for dial-up service, availablein mid-September, will start at $22-a-month for 20 hours of service.
The announcement will likely spur matchingmoves from rivals. But, said Fitzgerald, "We believe we'rein the forefront and we will stay in the forefront."
He took a swipe at local Internet ServiceProviders (ISPs) for not reducing their rates in three years -even after benefiting from lower costs to access TBI's networkby as much as 60 per cent. "None of these savings have beenpassed onto the Bermuda customer."
New industry rules, announced by telecommunicationsminister Renee Webb in June, were opposed by TeleBermuda on thegrounds that ISPs were given access to long distance business,without having to make the investment in infrastructure. Fitzgeraldsaid that they would continue a "dialogue" with thegovernment over the issue.
In the meantime, he said, "we willnot hold our customers hostage."