After the commitments assumed in 2009 have been fulfilled and even exceeded in several cases, PT and East Timor just presented their new strategic and business goals for 2011.
At the press conference in Dili, PT’s CEO, Zeinal Bava, said that Portugal Telecom, through Timor Telecom, is in the Timorese market to stay for a long time and does not fear competition. According to Zeinal Bava, Timor Telecom is “a long-term strategic asset” for the PT Group. “We expect to remain in this market for many years and I hope to be back in East Timor at the end of March of 2011 to celebrate 500,000 customers”, highlighted Zeina Bava.
During the presentation of the ambitious goals for 2011, Zeinal Bava restated Timor Telecom’s commitment to “the democratization of the access to telecommunications services”.
In terms of mobile service, 40% of the population already uses the services of Timor Telecom, which represents a significant increase vis-à-vis the 33% penetration of the previous year. There is a goal of 470,000 mobile customers at the end of 2010 through the continued launch of innovative services together with a price reduction. It is also worth highlighting that the prices to buy and use a mobile phone have significantly decreased by 40%. As to (2G and 3G) mobile coverage, Timor Telecom will reach more than 86% of the population by year-end, having all 13 district capital cities 3G coverage.
Until year-end, it is expected that 7.5% of the Timorese population (circa 80,000 users) will have Internet access. This performance has been supported on the launch of new innovative offers together with a significant reduction in the Internet access price. The www.sapo.tl portal in Tetum and Portuguese languages, launched last September, has been trying to promote the use of Internet and broadband as well as underpin the development of local multimedia contents.
The goal of Timor Telecom for 2011 is to cover 92% of the population with its modern mobile network (2G and 3G) and keep investing in the reinforcement of the landline coverage, with a fibre-optics backbone, together with the Timorese project of renewal and expansion of the National Electric Network.
Timor Telecom will also keep committed to investing in an international optical underwater cable, a strategic project that will allow the connection of East Timor to the international data network. This investment will enable to reduce broadband internet access prices even further and to increase service quality. According to Zeinal Bava, “the underwater cable project does not depend solely of Timor Telecom, but also of Indonesian operators, with a total investment of USD 10 million”.
The ambitious goals for next year also include the increase of mobile penetration to circa 55%-60% of the Timorese population and the increase in the access to broadband internet to circa 10%-15% of the population.
Timor Telecom has been one of the major investors in East Timor, with levels of investment twice as high as the average of the telecommunications sector in Europe and USA. East Timor is a strategic investment for PT. According to Zeinal Bava, “Portugal Telecom and Timor Telecom keep strongly committed to East Timor and will continue to develop and implement new telecommunications solutions and services, reinforcing their infrastructure investment, thus contributing to the development of the information society in the country”.