But as the major shareholder in BTL, government does have some reason for optimism. We spoke with the younger Barrow at a BTL press conference to discuss the company's robust earnings. Now usually we just hear about that at an annual general meeting in September, but there's been record growth in revenue and BTL's senior managers wanted to tell the public about it. Here's how they explained the 10% spike in revenue and 25% growth in profits:..
Anwar Barrow - Chairman, BTL Executive Committee
"This year I'm happy to report is going to be a banner year as to the financial performance of BTL. We had for the past 6 years either a decline as far as our revenues go or stagnation and this year we've been able to switch that trend around and we're up some 14 million dollars. Profits are also up some 5 million dollars over last year. So we are profitable as we are doing well."
"What we sought to do with BTL over the last two years is repositioning the products and services so that we can offer the Belizean customer more."
Ivan Tesucum - FCO, BTL
"In terms of the data customers we grew them significantly over the past year. We are now some where about 50 to 60 thousand data users over all."
Anwar Barrow - Chairman, BTL Executive Committee
"Over the last year, two years, Marlon and his marketing team have done a lot specifically in repricing the products. So two years ago a Digicell plan for the day as far as data was 8 dollars, today it is 2 dollars."
Ivan Tesucum - FCO, BTL
"It's a combination of both the price point and also what the folks are used to now because people can't live without data. The WhatsApp and all the different features that they have is just; who doesn't use WhatsApp now? Who doesn't use all the features now?"
Marlon Johnson - Chief of Sales and Marketing
"There is that perception that the products and pricing are not lined with regional norms. A quick google search can correct that to anybody who's interested. We've advanced at the products considerably over the last 18 months to 2 years and certainly on the mobile side. We think that we have packages and products and specials and monthly offers that are comparable to anywhere else in the region."
Ivan Tesucum - FCO, BTL
"In terms of the data customers we have about 60 thousand who are using now data in that respect."
Anwar Barrow - Chairman, BTL Executive Committee
"However the traffic which is a good measure of how much people are using it has grown maybe 8 or 900 percent from a year ago."
"A year and a half, 2 years ago we were at 58 percent roughly of the mobile market, now we believe we are at 64-65 percent of the market. So the next level for us is really the introduction of our 4G LTE service and that involves an entire replacement of our existing Ericsson network to a new Huawei network. That will also involve additional cell sites and expanding coverage there but our aspiration if you look at the chart behind you is really to move the company into being top 3 in the region by 2020."
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