High satisfaction amongst BTC’s FLOW TV customers
Nassau, Bahamas – Demand in the Family Islands for reliable television service with richer content, clearer pictures, and greater choices is driving quick uptake of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) FLOW TV in those markets, including in the educational system. With high customer satisfaction in its first months on Bimini and Inagua, BTC’s lead-in strategy of bringing premium content to underserved communities is seeing optimistic results.
Bimini’s Louise McDonald High School is amongst the satisfied FLOW users, enjoying a 3-month free trial of BTC FLOW. Principal Wesley Rolle says that FLOW TV’s diverse package options and the ability to customize packages through “FLOW on Your Own” have spurred creative use of the services as an educational support tool which may change how lessons are taught.
“We thank BTC for making this offer, it is something we envisioned having in the school to improve the delivery of education. Kids love the latest technology and we find ourselves using it in our classrooms to relate,” said Mr. Rolle. “We were interested in BTC’s educational package, with the history and science channels, and we customized it with an added Spanish channel. We have channels like Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and National Geographic to support our curriculum and we’ve also had BTC prepare four other classrooms so that we can expand if needed.”
Mr. Rolle said that the cloud recording feature is particularly helpful, “We can record shows and episodes as they relate to the curriculum and save it for later as part of the revision process,” he said. “I encourage my staff to save useful programs so that we can start a library of educational content.”
Customers in Bimini transitioned from the testing phase last October becoming the first island to have FLOW TV. Inagua soon followed, launching on December 15th 2015. Cat Island, Andros and Long Island are currently in the last stages of their trial phase and on track for their own launches later this year.
Clear pictures, high-definition and a large selection of channels have encouraged positive reviews of FLOW TV thus far as Bimini customer Kitty Saunders attests. “I love it. As soon as it came, I signed. I have more channels and I have HDTV so the pictures are much clearer. I used to have Cable Bahamas but BTC offers me more channels for the same price.”
A lack of options from competitors, lack of access to local programming, and unreliable service are amongst the top reasons customers were leaving their current providers for BTC. As reported by the Bimini Times, many residents claim that “unless Cable Bahamas can improve its service to the island, they will be making the switch… It was said that with the competitor it is take what you get, but with BTC IPTV, the selections are great.”
Tester-turned-customer Viveca Lubin of South Bimini said that options were limited in her area and she is happy to now have premium channels including the Bahamian channels she had been missing.
“I have had FLOW TV for 1 month and have really enjoyed the experience so far,” said Ms. Lubin. “I got FLOW TV for the connectivity with the local channels, particularly ZNS and The Parliamentary Channel. I am a resident of South Bimini and Cable Bahamas is not available here so I have been using Direct TV and was missing the local channels.”
BTC CEO Leon Williams stated that BTC’s choice to test and roll-out in the Family Islands stems from acknowledgement that those communities are sorely underserved.
“BTC has a mandate to provide premium services to Bahamians whether they live in an out island settlement or in Nassau. It was clear the existing television services in the family islands were woefully lacking so we made an effort to address this, with encouraging results. Customer satisfaction is high and we are seeing excellent feedback on the quality of service and the convenience and usefulness of the additional features such as cloud recording, DVR, and the ‘play from the beginning’ feature – which allows customers to start a show from the beginning even if it is not recorded. With features like Flow-to-Go also coming soon, we are optimistic about the roll out in other islands and the eventual launches in Freeport and Nassau later in 2016.”
