B.T.L. embarks on $25 million expansion
Belize Telecommunications Limited today announced plans for a major upgrade in services, particularly in rural areas. The twenty-five million dollar project is expected to add five thousand new lines by January and offer first time consumers a wide range of services. According to B.T.L.?s managing director, John Vondras, it?s all part of the company?s plan to provide universal access to the Belizean public.
John Vondras, Managing Director, B.T.L.
?What we want to do eventually is go all the way from Punta Gorda to the Free Zone with telecommunications; PSTN and GSM as well. But this focus is primarily on the PSTN side, the plain old telephone service, the fixed line network.?
?It depends on the area; if it is a smaller area it will be primarily voice type services, voice being plain old telephone service. In some of the other areas, we are able to deploy some of the new advance digital technology that is economical. In those areas we will also be providing high speed internet. Our goal is eventually to be able to provide any customer, any type of service they want when they want it. That is our goal and our vision. Now to do that, it?s not going to happen over night. There is a lot of infrastructure that has been developed and our network has to be upgraded to be able to handle all this. In the process, however, we are going to deploying the latest technology that allows our customers to have the services they want and demand.?
And while he was in a talkative mood, we asked the B.T.L. boss how things were developing with their struggling rival INTELCO on the long awaited interconnection agreement.
John Vondras
?We have been working very, very hard with INTELCO and B.T.L. together. We have decided jointly not to talk about it in the press until we are completed. What I can tell you–our talks have been very good. We have a lot of the agreements in terms of how we settle disputes between us in terms of billing; how we address customer problems, if a customer calls that we know we have a set procedure so we point fingers at each other. It?s in the best interest of both our customers and we are very close to having that done.?
Stewart Krohn, Reporter
?Related subject, possible sale of INTELCO to B.T.L. Any comments??
John Vondras
?Well let?s put it this way, as we were doing our interconnection, there have been talks, but that?s all I can say this time. Talks have emerged, we are still proceeding with our interconnection process and the future will tell what happens; I can?t comment more than that.?
The latest B.T.L. expansion will be carried out over the entire country simultaneously. The Corozal district will receive approximately five hundred new lines, Orange Walk six hundred and fifty, Belize eight hundred, Cayo one thousand five hundred and fifty, Stann Creek five hundred and Toledo around six hundred new lines. Some one hundred new public pay phones will also be installed, primarily in rural areas now served only by a community phone.
