fp Turks and Caicos

Connect 3 is the result of a long courting of Director of WIV Nigel Wardle by Digicel TCI CEO E. Jay Saunders. While noted as possibly the worst kept secret in the islands, Saunders admitted Digicel has been “dating” WIV for a while. “WIV has been the girl I have been chasing for her number for a while now,” Saunders said. Since starting Digicel in the Turks and Caicos in 2006, Saunders has had the vision of marrying the two networks to bring customers the ultimate product.

“This is a marriage of two state of the art networks and the result will be a win for the customers,” Saunders explained. “When Digicel entered the market the rates were around fifty cents a minute, today they are around once cent. Digicel pushed the rates down while increasing the quality and that was to a benefit for everyone in the country. We are looking to do the same here.”

Connect 3 brings together three major communication and media components for the end user, namely: telephone, television and internet. Through Connect 3, residents of Grand Turk now have the option to acquire all these services in one location, from one service provider, on one bill, at one low cost. “With this new product, we are able to offer deep discounts to the consumer,” Digicel Head of Sales Magnus Christie told the fp.

“We are happy to give Grand Turk this product first,” Saunders said. Residents are able to choose from three bundled packages starting at introductory rates of $99, which include Digicel DigiWorld 320, Unlimited Blackberry Service, TC Express 1MB internet service and WIV cable. This is a considerable discount of the current individual rates of the three products.

WIV Grand Turk General Manager Sherri Warrican said the new service was timely, possible overdue. “Cable has been disrupted in Grand Turk for over a year now. It brings me great joy to offer this service to the residents of Grand Turk. “

Saunders said after a visit to Grand Turk in 2008, it broke his heart to see the suffering of the people and he made it a priority to make sure they were never cut off from the rest of the Turks and Caicos again. Wardle said for years he has been approached by residents asking when he was going to bring his Internet service to the island. This is why they jointly decided to offer the service first to Grand Turk, while the rest of the country will have to wait possibly several months for their chance to take advantage of Connect 3.

Beyond the savings, the two companies say they believe the service and quality of the product will be an upgrade for the customers. “We have rebuilt the cable system and it is now the most robust it has been in many years,” Wardle told the enthusiastic crowd. He said with the partnering of the networks they are able to offer a seamless connection that will be faster and more reliable.

Wardle also revealed that WIV is about to announce some big changes across the country with their systems. Customers in the TCI can expect better quality television service in the form of fully digital, High Definition (HD) by the end of the first quarter of next year.