Moffat at home competing in Guam

GTA has been able to offer a GSM wireless service and digital TV over FTTH and fiber-to-the-node networks as well. GTA is using Minerva Networks for IPTV, MetaSwitch for softswitches to power a VoIP offering and Avail Networks for digital content.

“We have reversed attrition with our VoIP, and now we are picking up cable customers much faster than we are losing customers,” said Moffat. “We are delivering – our [video] package is priced the same as cable, and the digital is a better picture than the analog, and we have better content. We have a DVR that works well, while theirs has issues, and we have more high definition, so we have better programming for your dollar with HD, DVR and a good VoD offering.”

On the wireless front, GTA was the first to bring Blackberry smart phones to the Guam market but faces three competitors for that business.

From a business standpoint, GTA is taking advantage of Guam’s intense connectivity, with eight undersea cables in place and four more planned, and it operates a data center that can serve the entire Asia Pacific region, Moffat said.

“We have a data center we use for hosting and colocation and backup and all sorts of stuff,” Moffat said. “Right now we have Bank of Guam and Citizens Security Bank and some government folks in there. We are expanding it to people on-island for secure backup. We have big dual-backup generators and dual battery rooms, and we are interconnected to a bunch of cables. It’s a really beautiful facility– 50,000 square feet sitting in the jungle.”

Because Guam is US territory, the GTA data center also offers the “ultimate in security for US copyright laws and US defense for stateside companies who want to colocate on the Asia continent,” Moffat said. “Connections to Guam have very low latency because we are very close to Asia; we can cache content here.”

GTA is able to offer a full range of MPLS-based virtual private networking and other business services.

And when the business day is done, there’s a lagoon in which Moffat can paddle his surf board almost every night.

“I go surfing – I come home at 6 p.m. and paddle around the lagoon,” Moffat said. “We live on the water. Then we sit on the deck watching the sun set, looking for the green flash – that’s where the sun refracts through the water and creates this pulse of green light, just above the setting sun. We’ve seen seven.”

Moffat has yet to see the “big typhoon” that periodically comes through Guam, but he says GTA is ready.

“People remember that after the last typhoon, the only thing that worked was the telephone service,” Moffat said. “In our ads, we talk about the last big typhoon and how our service is typhoon-proven. Our offices are all cement, we have battery backup, and we have generator backup, and our plant is buried – about 70% of the cable plant is aerial. So we’re ready for when the next typhoon comes.”