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Last night, the company had its 13th AGM under the Telemedia name and we found executives and corporate strategists positioning themselves for a date driven future, but still paying for costly, legacy technologies. Jules Vasquez found that the tension between new and old technology had a direct effect on the company's bottom line:

The banner said 13th AGM- but really it's the private phone company's 30th year of existence, first privatized in 1988. Net Vasquez who was Chairman, then and now, said change has been the only constant:

Nestor Vasquez, BTL Chairman
"We are proud to have seen our own BTL being transformed and adapted to meet all the challenges, both external and internal to keep abreast of the world in its technology as it grows."

"We now have a fIber to the home network - this has brought the company's total investment in the past 10 years to over 500 million dollars. We invested that from our profits. Of course, we had to borrow a few dollars as well."

"Fiber to the home" is now the backbone of the company platform as it pivots forward into an uncertain future:

Ivan Tesucum, CEO, Digi
"No one could have predicted the depth and intensity at which we now have to change. The acceleration of change is crazy; it's beyond belief. But, that is our job: to ensure that your company is able to meet and address those market challenges."

But while it tries to ride the wave of the future, the executives had to explain to these shareholders why when revenues reached an all time high of 164.5 million, profits were down 5 million dollars:

Mohan Mahase - Chief Financial Officer - Acting
"165.1 MILLION now stands as the highest revenue every earned by the company in a SINGULAR YEAR. The increase in the operating efficiency ratios translated to an increase of about 8 million in the year. The 2 main reasons for the higher operating cost were as the CEO would have indicated increase the fact that we are running 2 netwroks. We continue to run our copper network and we continue to run our fiber to the home network."

Ivan Tesucum, CEO - BTL
"One of the things though, from a shareholder's standpoint is that the dividends that were declared at twenty and a half cents was similar to last year for a return fo 4.1%."

And, the company expects its profits to rebound.

Ivan Tesucum, CEO - BTL
"Right now we're running two networks; we are running the old legacy network which is incurring cost and has customers and then we have the new network. So we need to now move customers over from the old copper network to gain the efficiencies of the new network. That is where savings will come."

Reporter
"Do you all expect that profits will rebound next year into the 20 plus million dollars range?"

Ivan Tesucum, CEO - BTL
"It will rebound not necessarily in this fiscal year, but in the other one to come, because right now we are another fiscal year, so by the time we begin moving customers over, the next fiscal, we should see it."

But, BTL accepts that it is now battling in a globally competitive market:

Ivan Tesucum, CEO, Digi
"We recognized that the competition is not only local, the competition really, is bigger than that. It is the big companies of the world, It is the multibillion dollar companies that we are competing with. The Facebook's, the Instagram, the WhatsApp of the world. That's our competition so we had to change our mindset."

"Where we're now going is that how we can provide the new revenue streams, because what was traditional no longer will be able to be maintain and support the level of revenues. So that where now we are transforming."

Reporter
"Is cable TV one of those possible revenue streams?"

Ivan Tesucum, CEO, Digi
"We are looking at strategic business combinations and I think yes, Content, whether it be local content or international content, that is certainly something that we are currently considering, but on top of that we have to be looking at new services on which the fiber can be delivered, so when we speak of the internet of things, home automation, e-help, e-tourism - the digital learning platform, safe cities - all of these things are new revenue streams that we need to now monetize the fiber network that we deliver to 90% of the country."

A future of uncertainty buoyed by optimism

Nestor Vasquez, BTL Chairman
"Let us together go beyond, that's the goal."

Time will tell whether that optimism is justified.