Telephone Co. Ltd. is aggressively pursuing more customers. Today the company unrolls its new plan of action in the cellular sector.

After cutting its telephone sales section at headquarters on Victoria Street this summer the company has signed up five private dealers, with six outlets, to sell its cellular services.

The company is marketing its cellular phone service as BTC Mobility, and is currently awaiting to appear before a hearing of the Telecommunications Commission to launch new packages of services.

"As we move toward a competitive environment we are excited to be launching new cellular services to keep our customers at the forefront of wireless solutions,'' Francis Mussenden, BTC assistant vice president of planning and product development, said.

Customers as of today will be able to go to any one of the authorised dealers and order their BTC cellular services. The dealers have the advantage of selling telephones and offering a BTC connection at the same time to their customers. They will also receive a portion of BTC's activation charge.

BTC currently offers one service with a charge of $25 a month plus 30 cents a minute during peak hours and 15 cents a minute from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. In addition to the basic service BTC now wants to offer users eight packages which range in price from $15 to $299.95 a month for access and from 15 cents to 75 cents a minute depending on the features and time of day.

Features will include call waiting, three way calling, call transfer, sleep mode, call forwarding, group ringing, and voice mail. Customers will be able to switch to any one of the packages once these are approved by the Telecommunications Commission.

The company currently has 9,000 cellular customers and BTC believes usage will grow among the population.

BTC plans on targeting what it calls "casual users'' -- small business owners, young professionals, and women -- market segments which have been growing users of cellular telephones in North America.

BTC will face competition in the cellular sector from Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd. early next year.

Francis Mussenden