News

'Ivan' blows phone sales C&W's way

IN THE AFTERMATH of Hurricane Ivan, Cable & Wireless has been swept up in another whirlwind of sorts. Sales of their phones and accessories have been going as fast at Ivan's winds blew two weeks ago.

Since the hurricane, sales of bMobile phones have significantly increased, and new mobile handsets and accessories including car chargers, have been rushing out of their stores, company executives have revealed.

Ian Neita, Senior Vice President of Mobile Services at Cable & Wireless reveals that the increase in demand for bMobile phones has been nothing short of phenomenal, and there are adequate supplies to satisfy this quantum leap. "bMobile has already received a shipment of new phones and accessories to keep up with the demand, our phones are flying off the shelves," he said.

Nevine Heaven of SkyTech Mobile in the Sovereign Centre can attest to this fact as her b mobile outlet has been doing extremely well over the past few weeks. "Since the hurricane we have been selling, on average, 100 handsets per day, our sales have just skyrocketed," she revealed.

She also said that the catalyst has been two fold. Firstly, she points out that re-branding contributed significantly to the spike in sales and secondly, bMobile's performance and reliability during and after the hurricane.

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Cable & Wireless' COO Shawn Byran said that approximately $350,000 was spent to upgrade each exchange and install a generator. This he said, paid for itself during the hurricane when the exchanges lost JPS Co. supply.

People islandwide have been singing praises for the services extended by Cable & Wireless during the hurricane both on its mobile and fixed line network.

Speaking with THE STAR, Darren McNab, a C&W customer for the past 10 years praised the company for what he described as their excellent performance over the past two weeks. He said that he was able to keep in constant contact with friends and family and that gave him peace of mind during the hurricane.

Sally Williams, a new b Mobile customer said she was thrilled with the performance of the b Mobile system during the country's time of crisis. "Mi haffi seh during di storm when mi house a wash weh, mi coulda pick up mi phone an call mi granny in a Tawes Pen and check seh she alright," Miss Williams said. "Dis prove seh Cable and Wireless a di real owna fi di yard!' she said smiling. "Mi a go now fi get a phone fi mi boyfriend. Him a switch afta how him si mi phone work."