Above: Dr Ronald Walcott delivers the keynote address at the 12th Annual Tobago Economic Business Outlook Conference. Photo courtesy TSTT.
“An outdated TSTT cannot take Trinidad and Tobago forward unless the Company’s operations are completely upgraded.”
This was the message from the Company’s CEO, Dr Ronald Walcott, as he addressed the Tobago House of Assembly’s 12th annual Economic and Business Outlook Conference at the Magdalena Grand Hotel on Wednesday 21 November 2018.
Dr Walcott noted that the Company had already improved its infrastructure to the extent where all citizens can now get faster and smoother connectivity with far fewer service outages. “Broadband is a key driver of economic growth and the nation’s competitiveness,” he told the audience which filled the resort’s conference hall. “Faster Internet access can lead to better job opportunities, improved business efficiency and reduced transactional friction within the economy.”
He also revealed that with SOC 2 certification, which focuses on a business’ controls for Data Centres, TSTT is already among the top data centres in the world. “This positions TSTT as an ICT leader in the region and Latin America,” he said.
Tobago stakeholders listen to the keynote.
He said that studies show a direct relationship between broadband adoption and GDP growth, and that these effects were even more pronounced for emerging economies. “Broadband has the transformational power to boost local economies and providing a better outlook for growth,” the TSTT CEO advised. “There is a strong correlation between an enabling broadband backbone and the growth of the ICT sector.”
Since 2016, he added, TSTT had been implementing a strategic transformation plan focused on digitization through its broadband technology investment and company re-alignment. “In order to provide a national broadband solution – that is, the ability to provide every home in Trinidad and Tobago with a minimum of five megabytes per second – we have embarked on a zero copper campaign.” This means the removal of telephone wires, which will be replaced by fibre-optic cables and by wireless hubs.”
Walcott announced that in November TSTT will launch a campaign to re-establish the company as the market leader in LTE technology. He said that TSTT’s vision is to be standard bearer for leading-edge communications solutions and national broadband at affordable prices, possessing ICT solutions that will allow for fast and efficient problem-solving in business operations, improve marketing through greater market access and enhance customer support and management of resources.
In his presentation, Dr Walcott observed that the world is now going through a fourth Industrial Revolution which is “characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human”.
Telecommunications is the foundation of this new revolution, and TSTT is a key player in keeping Trinidad and Tobago connected to the future. “Whereas we are at a global population of 7.7 billion people, the estimation is that we will have 100 billion connections, which to say apps, in 2025 and the incremental revenue associated with this new world of opportunities is in excess of $ US 300 billion dollars annually,” said Dr Walcott.
