The Bermuda Telephone Company (BTC) will continue to be key player in the island’s telecommunications sector but it will need to adapt in order to maintain its success in the future.

That is according to Lloyd Fray, the newly-appointed president and CEO of BTC, who took over the role at the start of this month following the retirement of Francis Mussenden after 35 years with the company.

In an exclusive interview with The Royal Gazette, Mr. Fray, who was previously CEO of M3 Wireless and Logic Communications, as well as a director of BTC for the past two years, described himself as a “CEO for change” and said he was relishing the challenge ahead.

He talked about everything from the state of the industry to regulatory reform and the future direction of the company.

Having been working on the day-to-day operations and strategy of the KeyTech Ltd. group, Mr. Fray said it had been a smooth transition to his new position and he had been busy over the past two weeks getting up to speed on the internal processes specific to BTC.

He admitted that he had some big shoes to fill in the form or Mr. Mussenden, but believes that his experience within the group of companies, allied to his background as an engineer, and the industry at large would stand him in good stead.

"I<>am up for the challenge and I am a CEO for change and that continuity is much needed,” he said.

”Working with a strong management team I am very confident that we can meet that challenge and effect change.”

Mr. Fray said that BTC needed to evolve with the ever shifting markets in terms of technology and applications, while continuing to focus on its core business of being an access provider, and above all, its network and servicing the customer.

Acknowledging that Bermuda’s telecoms sector was undergoing a major change and was at a critical point in servicing the needs to the local market, he said that customer requirements and consumer choices were redefining the economics of communications.

As new communication features have become incorporated with growing global social networks, the introduction of new products, services and devices has taken pace, having a big impact on reshaping the way customers and businesses communicate in the future, with service providers needing to increase capital investment in network infrastructure and applications at the same time as reducing operating expenses, said Mr. Fray.

”This being a relatively small market, carriers have the challenge to keep pace, invest and of course, realise the return on their investments,” he said.

With change comes reform, and Mr. Fray recognises along with his peers in the industry that the former is not possible under the current legislation. Meanwhile the regulator is in the process of implementing a model to allow transparency, better pricing for customers and increased competition, which is set to have a significant effect on local providers, according to the BTC CEO.

He views reform as necessary to accommodate the rapid changes in the sector, but warned that in its proposed form, the legislation brought a level of complexity and costs that may have an adverse impact on the industry as a whole.

"Bermuda should not adopt ‘international best practices’ or regulatory constructs that do not fit our situation,”

”I believe that we in Bermuda have the ability to create successful regulatory structures for telecommunications customised to our unique situation much like Bermuda insurance executives were able to do in that sector.”

As a company, Mr Fray said, BTC has been striving to come up with new ideas and innovations in order to put it on the cutting edge of technology and he believes that multi-media and video on demand are just two opportunities that need to be pursued further.

Seeing the way that applications have become more lifestyle driven by technologies, such as the iPhone, in his previous roles at Logic and M3 Wireless, he regards BTC’s strengths in its infrastructure and capacity. He believes that reform will assist those technological developments, but will also have the effect of shrinking the current players in market through mergers and acquisitions.

BTC announced in March that it was looking to cut its workforce by about 25 employees - or more than 12 percent - as the company sought to reduce costs and restructure its business, and Mr. Fray was the first to acknowledge that the staff were the business’s biggest asset and it was his job to work with them through this period of change with the introduction of new technologies and required shift in skill sets to become more efficient.

And despite BTC providing telecommunications services for more than 120 years and carrying a ‘flagship’ status, Mr. Fray said that it cannot afford to be complacent.

”We just can’t rely on our position as the established Telco because the dynamics in our industry have changed,” he said.

”The market today requires telecommunication providers to offer compelling applications, reliability, performance and services that give customers choice and flexibility.

Although BTC remains one of Bermuda’s leading communications companies, transformation is paramount. It is time to take the leap into the new world and offer customers the cutting edge products demanded today and into the future combined with first class service.”