John Eitel (left), president and CEO of Call The Planet (CTP), shares a laugh with Marlene Williams, relationship manager of corporate banking at FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB), and Steven Harrison, chief technical officer of CTP, at the CTP's launch reception held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Monday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Call The Planet (CTP) Corporation, the latest firm seeking to benefit from Jamaica's high volume of long-distance callers, on Monday launched its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that will enable customers to make overseas calls at competitive rates with established players in the industry.

Addressing guests at the launch, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, CTP president and CEO John Eitel, promising high quality and affordability, said that his company, which invested more than US$2 million in its network in Jamaica, is keen on procuring a sizeable part of a VoIP market that is currently dominated by Cable & Wireless Jamaica's NetSpeak service.

"Providing affordable communications is an honourable business.we at CTP believe you should be able to talk as long as you want without having to sacrifice other things in your life because of the expense," said Eitel. "Companies like Cable & Wireless and Flow bring life-giving high-speed Internet services to Jamaica, that is the highway to the future. Call The Planet looks forward to furthering the choices for Jamaica with all those companies who seek the same."

At US$24.95 per month, CTP will be offering its VoIP service package marginally less than Cable & Wireless's NetSpeak, which is offered at US$24.99. However, besides the slight price- competitive advantage, Eitel boasted to the Business Observer in an interview that his company, which has its system set up in over 100 countries, also has the advantage of having a global private network. This, he said, will allow customers to get packages in non-traditional markets such as Asia.

"The way our system is set up, we can provide specialty packages that no one else can do because we control our environment," said Eitel. "Cable & Wireless and the rest of our competitors only provide service to North America and Europe. That's small change to us; we can do the whole world because of our technology."

In rolling out its new service, CTP has strategically partnered with six local cable operators, who will market and resell the product. The cable operators, according to Eitel, will get the benefit of improving their technical capabilities with the new system. He said that CTP's billing/management system "is one of the most advanced in the world" and will offer cable operators multi-currency and multi-lingual billing.

"In Jamaica, it is a new day. The change in landscape is already beginning.open- minded men and women of the cable industry see the challenge and in true Jamaican fashion have risen to an answer," said Eitel. "The answer is independent operators remaining independent but sharing resources and technology for the greater good."

The six cable companies that CTP has signed agreements with are:

. Telstar Cable Limited;
. Starcom Cable Vision Limited;
. J2 Limited Wireless Provider;
. GE Phone;
. Cornwall Communications; and
. Matrix Entertainment and Communications.

Mothers can't father

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'