FREE public Wi-Fi and solar power for the Grandstand, Queen’s Park Savannah are two of the elements to help turn Port of Spain into a “smart city,” said Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte. He was speaking on Thursday night at the launch of TSTT’s free public Wi-Fi at Queen’s Park Savannah West.
AROUND this time last year the future of majority state-owned telecoms provider, TSTT hung in a balance. According TSTT chief executive, Dr Ronald Walcott, the company was heading into financial ruin because of the way it was structured. It was practically a loss-making entity. Profit was down by $479 million for the six months ended September 2018, the annual wage bill stood at $768 million or around 30 per cent of revenue, TSTT’s debt burden was $1.8 billion and it had an annual operating loss of $32.5 million.
TSTT’S bmobile brand launched a new, free WiFi network at the Queen’s Park Savannah this evening. The company ran 25 kilometres of fiber and installed 58 wireless access points to build the wireless mesh, which was implemented in partnership with Huawei.
After sending home over 500 employees last year in a restructuring exercise, TSTT has returned to growth and it’s CEO Dr Ronald Walcott says the company is profitable once again. In an interview with the Sunday Business Guardian, Walcott said the company has made a significant turnaround. “We are a year on from where we’ve made some fundamental transformation initiatives. As of October, the company’s operating profit is in excess of $160 million. So we’ve made a significant turnaround in the organisation,” Walcott said.