MILTON KEYNES, U.K. -- Call costs for businesses in Jersey have been slashed by Cable & Wireless, utilising the DIGITALK Multiservice Platform (MSP).

Telecoms competition in Jersey had been getting increasingly intense for a number of months before Cable & Wireless Jersey made its headline grabbing decision to promise to cut the call costs of businesses by up to 50%.

Jersey, part of the British Isles but not United Kingdom, forms part of Cable & Wireless’ international business. Cable & Wireless Jersey has had a licence to operate there since 2004 and has played an active role as the island has sought to liberalise a telecoms market which was dominated until recently by the government owned Jersey Telecom.

To date Cable & Wireless has been competing in corporate telecoms services but plans to launch the island’s second mobile network later this year. Its first fixed line service was FirstDial Direct, a product only available to large corporates, launched in February 2006. The new service, FirstDial Business, enables businesses of all sizes to make outgoing voice calls to local, national and international fixed and mobile call destinations at guaranteed savings off the rates offered by Jersey Telecom. To do so, a company’s phone system simply needs to be reconfigured to automatically dial a short prefix number before the call. Both FirstDial services utilise DIGITALK’S MSP.

Mark Ashdown, Sales and Marketing Director, DIGITALK said, “DIGITALK is an ideal solution for the delivery of voice services for alternative Service Providers who need a highly scalable platform that will grow as their customers do. The MSP allows them to introduce new services into new markets, at their own pace and with the minimum of new investment.”

David Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Cable and Wireless Jersey, agrees and commented, “Our portfolio of FirstDial services is built around both the customer experience and value for money. As the only credible alternative operator in Jersey, we have had to overcome significant barriers to market entry in addition to not having access to the local loop. In a market which is desperate for competition, the DIGITALK platform has brought us ease of implementation and a future proof solution. This will allow us to branch into new technology areas in the future.”

Digitalk Ltd.