C&W launches Prepaid Blackberry and Roam Free services

By Joyette Mills-Ward
Business Reporter -SKNVibes.com

Chief Executive Officer Patricia Walters

Earla Clarke-Allen, Manager of Mobile and Consumer Sales explained that during an introductory period which will run until October 31, pre-paid bMobile customers would be able to register for the Blackberry service that had only been available to post-paid customers.

“We have now answered the call of our pre-paid customers and made Blackberry service available and affordable to them. For $10 per week, pre-paid customers can enjoy unlimited services such as email, social networking, chatting, web browsing, sending and receiving pictures and more; all without the burden of a monthly bill,” she said.

Clarke-Allen said that after the introductory period concludes on Oct. 31, customers who registered for the new service would have $15 deducted from their account every Friday morning and that if there was insufficient credit on the account to accommodate the charge, it would go into a negative balance until the next Top-Up.

Additionally, the Manager noted that registration for the Pre-paid Blackberry service was free until September 30, after which a fee of $15 would be applicable.  ~~Adz:Right~~

During the introductory period, Cable & Wireless St. Kitts & Nevis Ltd. has also discounted the prices of the Blackberry Curve 8320 and Blackberry Pearl 8120, while stocks last. Customers will also receive a free skin for their new blackberry with purchase.

“This service is being offered for the first time in the Caribbean, and is aimed at giving customers access to everything they love in life,” she informed.

David Lake, Vice President of Mobile Consumer Sales and Indirect Channels unveiled the second revolutionary service, Roam Free, which he said “could not have been done at a better time” than during the summer when friends and families are travelling the Caribbean.

“With Intra-Caribbean Home Rate Roaming or HRR, a bMobile customer will now have the ability to make and receive calls, use their GPRS data services to browse the internet, do text messaging and MMS at domestic market rates just as if they are home,” Lake revealed. This service, he informed, will be available in the 14 Cable & Wireless territories.

During his explanation of how the service worked, Lake said that “HRR brings benefits to our customers in that national calls, that is, calls made within the visited market, will be treated as international calls not as roaming calls. To put it simply if a customer from St. Kitts is roaming in Antigua and makes a call to an Antiguan number, the St. Kitts customer would be charged as if he or she were making a call from St. Kitts to Antigua. So that person would pay just regular IDD rates international rates and not roaming rates,” Lake informed.

Giving a second scenario, Lake explained that if a customer were to visit any of the other C&W territories, calls made back to their home country would be charged as though they were making a local call.

Chief Executive Officer Patricia Walters offered her sentiments about the structural transformation of the telecoms giant and gave some insight into future plans.

“Cable & Wireless had some months ago announced its intentions to transform itself into the only true PanCaribbean Telecommunications Company here in the Caribbean, where the vision was that every customer of Cable & Wireless, no matter what island they resided in, was the customer of Cable & Wireless Caribbean. This morning’s launch of the two new exciting products truly does demonstrate the ‘One look, One feel, One customer’ vision of Cable & Wireless Caribbean”.