At the end of November, we told you about you about BTL's announcement that it intended to upgrade it's mobile data network to 4G LTE. The transition ahs been fast tracked to give some relief to customers who are bombarding the present 4g switch - which is overloaded.
But in the race to roll out the service, SMART has beaten them to it. Just before Christmas, SMART announced that their 4G LTE service was here, while BTL customers are waiting for what's been derogatorily called "Slow G" to improve. BTL's Chairman of the Executive Committee Anwar Barrow, today implored those BTL 4G customers to wait just a little while longer while the company works to roll out 4G LTE as soon as possible. Here's that back and forth:
Anwar Barrow - Exec. Chair., BTL Board
"I'm glad you asked that question because we put our some information on that. there have been areas where there have been challenges in terms of the experience and that has simply been because of the growth it's not that anything has been changed in the system or there is something wrong in the background, it's just because the traffic has grown so much over the last 10 months the traffic has grown by 800%. So you can see how much of a strange that puts on the network and that is why we are moving quickly to deploy this new network which is a lot bigger a lot more robust. So we need people in those affected areas to be mindful to what is coming to remain a Digicell customer because we will continue to deliver the best value and we will deliver the best service at a world class level. That is our goal right now as a company. We want to move the country and move our company to a world-class level."
Daniel Ortiz
"Sir while you are moving towards that step, at this moment your network is not, your BTL network is not the best. Smart has beaten in terms of launching its LTE. Why has it taken so long, or why would it take some more time for you all to prepare this launch?"
Anwar Barrow - Exec. Chair., BTL Board
"I wouldn't necessarily agree with that and I think there are factors such as traffic and the amount of people on the network which affects any networks performance. I won't comment specifically on the competitor, that is for them and I'm glad that they are moving forward technologically because that's what we want. We want the country, and we want the consumer to benefit and that s what we are pushing also."
Barrow told us that while the company recognizes the inconvenience that consumers are experience with the overloaded 4G network, they are happy that the reason this has happened is because Belizeans have embraced the service, to allow the company to start making profits once again.
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