Telecommunications Services of T&T (TSTT) has spent more than $700 million within three years on technology for its new services Blink Entertainment and TSTT Vigilance.

Blink Entertainment is a subscription-based Internet protocol television (IPTV) service, which is a digital television service that delivers content to viewers using Internet protocol technology as against over-the-air broadcast or co-axial cable mediums. Roberto Peon, chief executive officer, TSTT, said it has been a plan for many years to launch the two products. He said the economic downturn did not prevent TSTT from spending on this venture since customers’ needs must be put first. Peon said the products will help TSTT to be more competitive in T&T’s telecommunications market. “It is very important when you have a company to start looking at customer needs and provide the service. This is a service that will increase our revenues. We are moving the company into providing services that customers need,” Peon said.

At the beginning of his presentation, Peon said the media are accustomed to seeing TSTT in the traditional role of incumbent market leader defending against competitors trying to carve their own space in the market. “Today, however, our role is reversed. Today, we are the new entrant facing entrenched service providers and we are the ones trying to carve a space in the market.” Peon said TSTT researched the technology for these markets, probed customers’ needs, worked closely with equipment and content providers, rigorously tested its service and equipment to provide product packages to change the status quo in the market. He said a third product is to come out soon, but did not disclose details. Peon spoke yesterday at the launch of Blink Entertainment and TSTT Vigilance at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel, Port-of-Spain.

New products
Referring to the CCTV cameras, Peon said TSTT was successful in providing the cameras to government for the Fifth Summit of the Americas that was held last April, and is now moving on to new products. Regarding cable theft, Peon said: “We have cameras in some of our cables. We have security devices in some of our cables, so when someone cuts it, we find out. We have roaming groups of security folks who will go and react to those.” The second product which TSTT launched is a security alarm system called Vigilance. Dennis Gordon, vice-president, organisational risk and security services, said there’s a demand in T&T for security services. “The increasing perception of criminal activity has created a demand for home alarm monitoring services and these services have generally been beyond the financial reach of the average citizen,” Gordon said. The system has a monitoring centre. Once a customer has signed up for the service, he or she must give a phone number to call if the alarm system is triggered off by an intruder.

Gordon said TSTT has developed and manages a very complex and state-of-the-art internal camera and alarm network for all its facilities and locations. “As a consequence of our internal initiatives, we have been able to reduce our property loss from $25 million to $1 million in 2008,” Gordon said. Gary Barrow, executive vice-president, converged services, spoke about Blink Entertainment’s high definition channels, which are available in parts of Westmoorings and St James and are being tested in Trincity. “This is a very capital intensive undertaking involving significant investments in equipment, cabling and manpower. We have invested over $25 million to date developing and operationalising the service and will invest over $30 million in the next five months to expand service availability,” Barrow said.