Back then, he made it clear that C&WJ would not surrender its dominant position in the cellular market, that significant investments would be made in its land line division, that it would streamline its personnel and make the company leaner and fitter, that it would look to Internet Protocal (IP) data, moving away from 'voicecentric' to 'datacentric' services, and that it would continue to have a noticeable presence in the fabric of social and civic life in Jamaica.

Two years on, he can confidently tick yes on his scorecard of things accomplished, which is always gratifying for a chief executive officer.

Gary Barrow is not from the same mould of a Barry Diller, Jack Walsh or even his predecessor, Errald Miller - all bullish brio and chest thumping. Rather, his demeanour is more akin to The Godfather's Micheal Corleone - quiet efficiency, soft-spoken but always carrying that big stick. He doesn't announce his presence but yet you know and feel he's there.

Now entrenched at the helm, what was the strategy employed by Gary Barrow and his management team to reawaken the sleeping lion?

"First of all, it would be useful to recognise a bit of context. We began by making significant organisational changes over the last six months. There is a brand new team at our headquarters in London and they are taking a different orientation with respect to both operational management as well as the strategic direction of Cable & Wireless.

"I think key to that is a refocus around the regional businesses, which means reorganising them as national telecoms and giving them significant autonomy. A part of the structural changes is that I now report directly to London. The CEOs now have wider latitude than they did before and there is a shift back to national telecoms as Cable & Wireless' core business. There is a concurrent focus on both IP and data as key components of the strategy going forward. This doesn't mean that Cable & Wireless will opt out or reduce its present telecoms operations."

What is apparent is that C&WJ has taken its cue from the direction of the new management team in London and is focused on capitalising on the opportunities that exist in Jamaica. Mr. Barrow said there is still much mileage left in the mobile telephone market and that it was a significant part of C&WJ's emphasis and strategy going forward.

MOBILE PHONES

Gary Barrow declared emphatically that C&WJ intends to be the leader in the cellular market and is making efforts to re-establish its premier position. Over the last two years, C&WJ has invested $7 billion into its operations, establishing a new GSM/GPRS network.

"This network is edge capable, which means that the network can provide two and 3G type services with the right software upgrades. We have that capability so that in terms of protecting our future position it would simply be a case of making incremental investments. We have made a significant investment in our mobile division and chose Nortel as our partner. We have worked with them in the past and they are our major provider for our fixed line network. We are very pleased with their performance to date on implementing the GSM network, which was put in place in just under six months."

What he finds particularly heartening is the customers' response to the new GSM network, which he said has been positive. On going to print, the company had signed up 12,500 GSM customers in just under three weeks.

"I think it is fair to say that people have seen a significant improvement in terms of what we have done in expanding our TDMA and GSM network. We can now offer all three technologies and now our rates are extremely competitive. From the last time we spoke we have more than doubled the number of cell sites we have across Jamaica, with over 220 sites. All the key geographical areas in Jamaica are now covered. We are very pleased with the way the project has gone and are very excited about the future as far as mobile is concerned.

"Mobile is doing well but let's not forget that we are an integrated service provider and that in itself offers unique value propositions in being able to offer full services to our corporate and residential customers, that is, fixed lines, data, Internet, IP, DSL, mobile and so on. We will solidify our position in the marketplace going forward as a full service provider."

MARKETING

In a little less than three years, C&WJ's main mobile competitor, Digicel, has built a customer base of more than 700,000 subscribers and at one time threatened to supplant C&WJ as the country's leading mobile phone company. This is due in the main to its marketing ability and the manner in which it implements its strategies, coupled with a simple ethos - we will deliver what we say. This marketing savvy has never been seen before and corporate Jamaica has sat up and taken note, so much so that many companies seek to emulate the Irish telecoms company.

This approach was not lost on C&WJ as it saw its market share dwindle before its very eyes. It is very difficult for a former monopoly to put on its battle dress and pull its sword from its scabbard if it has become fat and corpulent as a result of never having to compete. C&WJ was not quite ready to sound the death knell and, in effect, initiated a marketing campaign to announce its rebirth.

Mr. Barrow concedes that its marketing campaign was born of the fact that C&WJ needed to be more nimble and get more aggressive in the marketplace. He stressed that the company intends to compete and will do so very aggressively.

How many mobile customers does C&WJ now have?

Digicel has claimed to be market leader with more than 700,000 customers but Mr. Barrow insists that the industry applies different measurements and one has to be sure that they are comparing apples with apples. According to the C&WJ boss, the company has approximately 680,000 registered customers, with 80,000 less than that figure when it comes to active customers. Mr. Barrow explains that active customers were determined by the time period a customer makes or receives a call. There are active 30 days, active 60 days or active 90 days services. Some other organisations, he said, have an active period of six months.

"When Digicel says it has over 700,000 customers, I really do not know what that means. What we are pleased with is the type of customers we have. I believe we have the majority of the corporate and high-end residential customers. We are targeting a particular segment that we think our value proposition is more appealing to."

OCEANIC'S BATTLE WITH C&WJ

This week saw C&WJ being taken to court to address charges pressed by Oceanic that it had blocked its international calls. Oceanic won a temporary injunction, which means its international calls can now go through until the case again comes before the court on August 25.

Oceanic, in a release, explained: "The legal action is being taken because Oceanic objects to C&WJ's heavy-handed monopolistic practices designed to slow down the deregulation process and to keep wireless and international telephone service rates much higher than in other Caribbean countries. Oceanic intends to fight for its position to bring affordable telecommunications services to Jamaica."

Oceanic also contended that C&WJ improperly, and in breach of its interconnection obligation, reduced interconnection facilities with Oceanic to prevent it from competing with C&WJ for international long distance traffic originating outside of Jamaica. The dispute centres around how much Oceanic has to pay to C&WJ to terminate traffic on C&WJ's wireline and wireless systems.

C&WJ maintains that the agreement only applied to domestic calls and that a different agreement pertains to international calls going through its pipe.

Gary Barrow sought to clarify.

"The situation is really straight forward. Prior to the 1st of March 2003, when international facilities were open to competition, we had agreements in place with several operators. In those agreements - which we refer to as Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) - as well determinations from the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), there are specific agreements and contracts that we sign with these operators with certain conditions. In those contracts you are allowed to engage in specific services. We have a defined set of services and you buy those services from us or visa versa.

"Come the 1st of March you get into a situation where there are new services that are going to come about as a natural result of liberalisation and so there is an expectation that some new contract will have to be signed to recognise these new services. What we have done is put out a RIO 5 and we have provided that to the OUR and the public can access it through our Internet site. What should happen is that the RIO 5 would be approved by the OUR. There are some conditions that are now tied up in litigation with Digicel challenging the OUR on certain aspects of some principles embedded in RIO 5. As a result, the OUR hasn't been able to make certain determinations and rulings.

"Notwithstanding, we have said that we want to facilitate competition and we have said that we are not going to await the outcome of the court ruling or the subsequent determination of the OUR. We are happy to go into the market and say to all of these providers, 'listen, this is something that is between the OUR, Digicel and the courts so this is an offer we are making to you so that you can immediately engage in offering your services to the Jamaican public.

"Now, we didn't have to do this but in the spirit of good corporate citizenship we did so. We have seen a number of carriers file RIO 5 to get their business going with the condition that once the ruling comes we will adjust the RIO 5 to be consistent with the ruling of the OUR. To me, most people would see that as a reasonable position but there are carriers that have refused to sign RIO 5 because they feel there is a greater commercial advantage in not signing it. Oceanic is paying for a service that is not being costed. They are paying for the previous RIO 3 and there is no such service right now. What we are saying is that we have a service called International Terminator and the cost of that service is X, and that X is different from what you were paying before."

MONOPOLISTIC PRACTICES

Many of C&WJ's competitors have levelled charges of monopolistic practices against it and have said that the company implements measures to maintain its dominance of the market. Mr. Barrow parries, declaring that that is the standard sales pitch from new entrants looking to make a name for themselves.

"Yes, as you know we were a monopoly at one point in time and a lot of the newcomers have come with the same rhetoric and song - the same song about monopolistic behaviour. Quite frankly, it is typical of new entrants into a market where there is a significant incumbent who has the lion share. They are looking to apply the pressure and this is one way to go about it.

"In my view, it is done to get the public emotions going. Right now it is a fully liberalised industry and that rhetoric is old. We have been extremely accommodating and facilitating as far as competition is concerned. Digicel itself has spoken to the fact that their own expectations as to how quickly they would have been able to come into the market and get agreements were exceeded because we were accommodating.

"I think that argument is tired and old and people have heard it all before. We abide by the Telecoms Act that guides interconnection and all we are asking is, in the best interest of the industry, that everybody abides by the law. If one is going to characterise us by saying we are monopolistic then so be it but we will not be deterred and will continue to be guided by the Telecoms Act."

PRICE WAR

C&WJ has instigated a price war in the cellular market and at this point in time can claim to offer the best prices in town. This is part of its strategy to aggressively compete by maintaining a boa constrictor-like grip on service, handset prices and call rates. The company has managed to cause a frisson of excitement in the marketplace and has made the telecoms industry the most fascinating and compelling arena in corporate Jamaica.

"It's a little difficult to make any comment on our prices versus Digicel's because I don't know the prices they pay for their phones and the specific conditions they have agreed to. You will have recommended retail prices but depending on your volume purchases and your relationship with suppliers you can have special deals.

"We have an exciting selection of handsets right now as a result of having the latest GSM technology. Added to that is the fact that we also offer a GPRS service which is now becoming standard throughout the world. Today in Jamaica, C&WJ is offering the public phones with polyphonic ring, picture phones, M&S capabilities - all these features can be had on our network. What we did was go out and focus upon those particular models of phones that offer these kind of capabilities. I'm really pleased to see that Digicel is following us now in the kind of handsets we offer. We were the first to offer GPRS capability phones - I think for the first time they are in catch up mode and its a matter of time before we push ahead of them.

"We have some very exciting plans which we think will be very appealing to the public and we will soon roll these out. I can't let you in on them just yet because as you will appreciate they are commercially sensitive. Our $1.95 late night (11 p.m.- 6 a.m.) rate and unlimited weekend rate are hits and people are taking full advantage of them. One of the things we recognised though is that the prepaid population of users tend to make a lot of late night calls. We profiled our post-paid customers and came up with this package where you pay an incremental amount each month, around US$10 but then you have the entire weekend free. Our demographics lead us to make this excellent offer and it will be hard to beat. The take up has been extraordinary.

"I have heard that our main competitor is having challenges with its network and I can recall when we had our own particular challenges with our TDMA network and the public registering its dissatisfaction with that. We have addressed our problems and are presently offering the public a superior service at competitive rates."

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