Mar 2016 Financial News

Double Play

Mar 03, 2016

Massy Communications (MC), a subsidiary of the Massy Group, is the latest company to launch a high-speed internet and high-definition (HD) television service in Trinidad and Tobago (TT).

The service, officially available since this past Monday (February 29), underwent a three-week trial last month in various parts of west, central and south Trinidad, including Westmoorings, Chaguanas and Gulf View, La Romaine.

Catering for the varying needs of consumers, the company has five internet packages, four television packages, and five “Double Play” bundles after discount. The latter comes with monthly discounts ranging from $25 to $125, depending on which bundle is selected. (Package details are available at www.massycomms.com)

Whether you call it a recession or not, there’s no disputing that TT is experiencing tough economic conditions following the sharp drop in energy prices but this may actually lead to more business for MC, as people seek more affordable entertainment options.

Earlier this week, Business Day sat down with three MC executives at the company’s head office at #80 El Socorro Extension Road, El Socorro South, to discuss what they think sets them apart from the competition and about why they expect the current recession will be good for business. The executives are: Executive Director, Lisa Agard (who joined MC at the end of July 2015 about a month after leaving her post as Chief Executive Officer of Guardian Media Limited); Marketing and Sales Consultant, Corey Feldstein; and Fenwick Reid who is both MC Chairman and Executive Chairman of Massy Technologies.

Drawing on her previous experience “during tough times” while employed with the Telecommunications Services Trinidad and Tobago Limited (TSTT) and with Cable and Wireless Jamaica Limited, Agard said “because the use of the internet is so inextricably linked to how people live and what they do on a daily basis, I do not see, in times of recession, people giving up their internet.”

“Consumers are going to become a more value-conscious about how they select,” Agard continued. “So they might decide to take lower-end packages that are more suitable to their needs while matching their discretionary income.”

Rather than doing without high-speed internet, Agard thinks “the recession is going to draw people to our service because they will be going out less, they will be going to restaurants less frequently and they will be seeking entertainment opportunities in their own homes. So I think it’s a huge opportunity for our business.”

Business Day asked if MC was more focused on clients in the corporate world or if there was a big push underway to gain a share of the local cable/internet/ phone bundle.

“Our launch on the 29th of February (was) all about residential customers,” Agard said. “Although we will also be focusing on the SME (small and medium enterprises) market. In making the decision to invest in residential ultra high speed intent and more HD TV, Massy considered a number of factors including existing market conditions. Apart from sub-standard low speed operators, there is still significant growth opportunities in the Broadband and Pay TV sectors in TT.”

Agard noted that according to the 2014 Annual market report by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT), Fixed Internet subscribers increased by seven percent in 2014 with a household penetration of 58.2 percent.

“So a massive 41.8 percent of households DO NOT have a fixed internet connection. Of those that have an internet connection, 48 percent subscribe to speeds up to 10 Mbit/s. Our entry level Internet package (Surf a Little) starts at 15Mbps. Our highest package is 250Mbps. Customers are going to get the highest internet speeds ever. Similarly on the TV side the Pay TV household penetration increased to 55.7 percent in 2014. Again some 44 percent of households DO NOT have a pay TV service,” Agard said.

Now that there are four companies in TT providing cable television and internet services; MC, Digicel Play, Flow and Blink Entertainment, consumers can ‘shop around’ to see which provider gives them the most value for their dollar.

Asked if MC’s prices are competitive, Agard said, “Yes. Overall, we are very competitive for what you get. (For example), our upload speeds are one of the highest in TT. More and more, ‘Trinis’ are sharing videos, photos and having video chats, so upload speeds are important. Gamers too would appreciate faster upload speeds. We also have the most HDTV that you want to see with a total number of Channels at 195 with 77 being HD.”

Agard cautioned consumers to do their research on all the available services, comparing internet upload and download speeds, the number of television versus music channels with some companies counting music channels as TV channels, the number of HD channels and how many free/minimum recording hours they get on their personal video recorders (PVR).

“As with anything having to do with products and services, ‘the devil is in the details’. We urge customers to look very carefully at what’s in your package,” Agard advised.
Feldstein added that MC has been “finding that our customers are very receptive and very appreciative of the fact that when they go to our website, it’s not tricky to understand. When you look at the whole gamut, we actually have the least expensive fibre internet package available in TT.”

MC has an “all GPON (Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network) fibre system”. The company’s Engineering Manager, Timothy Tambie, explained that this not only makes for a more resilient service to customers, “if power loss occurred anywhere in the plant, the signal to customers would not be affected.”

Another benefit of having a GPON is that upgrades to customers’ internet speeds can be done easily. “Right now, it’s up to 250 megabits per second but because this is a fibre optic system, ‘fibre to the home’ as they say, we can upgrade customers in the future to say one gigabyte per second,” Tambie said.

The latest technology isn’t the only thing which MC says sets it apart from competitors; customers have the option of joining the MG’s rewards programme, in which they earn points on their Massy Card every time they shop at selected Massy Merchants such as Massy Stores (formerly Hi-Lo supermarket).

“You can use your Massy points to buy groceries at Massy Stores, to pay your MC bill, in addition to earning and using points at any other Massy (subsidiary),” Agard noted.
This therefore played a part in MC’s decisions about where to start offering its services during Phase One of its nation-wide installation schedule.

“Apart from areas with dense populations,” Reid shared, “a lot of it has to do with proximity to our Massy Stores because we are looking at these as ecosystems. We’re looking for people who shop in the particular stores, who can get other goods and services from Massy, because we’re not just selling TV and internet services. We are selling other services provided by Massy.”

Phase Two of installation got underway in east Trinidad two weeks ago (mid-February). Agard told Business Day the company “looked at a number of things” when selecting where next to offer its services.

“Where there are dense populations, where our outside plants already exist; in terms of the feeder system which makes it easier to provide service, and where we have Massy Stores (such as) in Trincity and Arima.”

Agard assured however that where MC sees “urgent pockets of demand, we can change our strategy to accommodate them. We’re going to see where it makes sense to provide the service and we remain very flexible in terms of the areas that we go into.”
Once MC is in an area, Reid assured that customers can expect a superior level of customer service, including providing guidance and assistance “to help them resolve their network problems” as well as supplying customers with the photo and vehicle identification of the technicians who will be coming to their homes/businesses to do installations.
MC also has 24-hour call centre with eight technical support and eight customer support staff members. Customer Operations Manager, Romona Boiselle- Romano, said “we (MC) monitors the volume trends and staffs to suit. The most active time so far has been between 6 pm and 8 pm, with most customer contact being made via phone calls. The rest are usually email queries.”

MC was established in 2006 shortly after the liberalisation of the local telecommunications industry. It started off in the niche sector of international telecommunications and then started to build out a fibre optic network providing multiple classes of voice and data services. Its current customers include Government, and businesses in the Financial Services, Manufacturing and Energy sectors.

Source:
By Sasha Harrinanan
Newsday
Thursday March 3, 2016

http://www.newsday.co.tt/businessday/0,224827.html