CEO’s Review and Strategy Update

Daragh

When I joined JT more than 20 years ago, it was a very different business to the one we see today. The full-fibre broadband we take for granted in Jersey, was only a concept as little as 13 years ago; but now we have a fully deployed network and we’re enjoying some of the fastest speeds in world.

Gigabit Fibre was a major island-wide project that took us several years to complete whilst, in parallel, we were also upgrading our mobile network to 4G. That 4G mobile network remains in good health today but such is the rate of change, we are soon to start replacing it with 5G, as technology continues to move on at a pace.

5G encompasses the whole spectrum of new technology, infrastructure and mobile connectivity and plays a very important role in all of our futures. It will touch every sector in every industry – supporting advances in eHealth, helping businesses of every size to become more energy efficient, delivering improved bandwidth and enhanced security features and it will serve as a technology gateway for a number of emerging businesses – an exciting prospect for our islands. And, much like JT fibre in the early days, it is almost impossible to comprehend the breadth of capabilities it will bring to the Islands long into the future. 5G forms only part of an entirely new network modernisation programme, meaning that our customers won’t just realise the benefits of 5G, but the benefits of the entire suite of product and services that sit, or will sit on top of the network.

With the recent approval of our licence by the JCRA, I am delighted to announce that work will begin in 2023 on the enhanced network.

This is the forward-thinking nature of telecoms and I feel very privileged to see and experience first-hand how, as a provider of critical national infrastructure, we can play a fundamental role in the economic and social development of our communities.

With full-fibre in the ground and 5G in the air, we are building the digital infrastructure of the future, for everyone.

Joining Together

When we talk about the importance of our Islands’ infrastructure, We must also note the significant roles the other utilities play in making the Channel Islands such a great place to work, live and play.

JT has long been a believer that we must work together in partnership with our fellow utilities to make the lives of our customers better, this has been demonstrated most acutely during the recent times of COVID and continues today as we all navigate our way through the current cost of living crisis. We are working with Jersey Water and Jersey Electricity to support the National Trust for Jersey’s ‘green grid’ initiative, where our teams will come together to plant a further 5 miles of hedgerows to protect our Island’s wildlife and encourage biodiversity to flourish.

JT’s new Community Giving is here to help not-for-profit organisations, with donations and support for local community projects. We want to offer the incredible charities and groups who do so much for our island, an extra helping hand. Who can apply?

Also, this year we are very proud to have launched JT Community Giving –a funding and support scheme, whereby any charity or not-for-profit can apply for help with a project that gives back to the people of the Channel Islands. Our first round of applications closed in December 2022 with 49 requests for support, and I’m delighted to say that we’ve already helped 28 charities in vital ways, such as providing Wi-Fi support for a new Mental Health drop in centre in Jersey and supplying technical devices needed to run vital 24/7 online counselling lines for some of our most vulnerable Islanders.

Fibre in Guernsey

With the exciting news that every home in Guernsey is due to be connected to full fibre by 2026, I’m proud to say that JT have already connected over 700 customers to fibre in Guernsey. We’re proud of the role we’ll play in opening up the opportunities that we know will follow once we give the community access to super-fast fibre speeds.

JT Community Giving aims to help community projects, that support one of more of the below;

• Local charity project that results in meaningful ‘give-back’ to our community.

• Events that support free digital skills progression and opportunities for all.

• Initiatives that promote and support the importance of mental and physical health and well-being of our islanders.

• Projects that protect or enhance our islands environment and heritage.

An Update on JT’s Strategy

Our 5-year strategy was approved by the Board of JT following the sale of the IoT business in late 2021. At its core, our strategic aim is to digitise and simplify our business so that we become an efficient and modern telecommunications operator. Doing this will enable JT to be in an even stronger position going forward to support our customers and to deliver the islands’ digital future.

Delight our Customers

We are continually striving for ways to ensure that our customers find JT a great company to deal with and, as such, our strategy focuses on delighting our customers in 3 keys areas:

Be a Great Network

The reliability of our network is our ultimate priority and while there is no such thing as a zero fault network, we work hard to ensure upgrades, planned works and security changes are executed in an effective and efficient manner with limited or zero impact on customer services. We are acutely aware that even minor incidents can have an impact on customers including their ability to call emergency services and our objective is to ensure that where these occur that we recover as quickly as possible.

To this end, 2022 saw us embark on a programme of work to significantly strengthen our network reliability and we carried out over 4,000 planned works to improve network stability. Amongst many other initiatives, the work we’re doing to secure a world-class vendor to replace our current mobile network provider, which will include the launch of 5G, will improve our long-term performance, resilience and latency.

Simplification

To simplify the experience for our customers, we’re working hard to reduce the legacy products and services we offer, whilst also investing in great new future-proof technology and products. Much of 2022 has been spent reviewing our portfolio and our back-office systems and setting the groundwork for 2023 and beyond. We have already retired over 30% of services in order to make it simpler for customers to choose the best offer and for us to be able to support you. In addition, we also brought to market new products such as JT Total Wi-Fi, which not only improves Wi-Fi speed and reach in the home, but also provides improved security and resilience to cyber-attacks.

Customer Experience

Customer Service is everything to us here at JT, and that’s why we have increased the number of ways in which our customers can communicate with us – extending support hours and providing channels such as online chat. But we also know that customers want to be able to do more for themselves. In 2022, we made 59 new enhancements to our JT apps, improving automation and

• Delight our customers

• Be a great place to work

• Grow the business

• Build a sustainable future allowing customers to self-serve in a number of ways such as adding on bolt-ons for discounted roaming. We will continue to invest in our online tools and apps and you will see some exciting developments in the coming months when we extend services further such that customers will be able to manage the majority of changes to their account at any time of the day or night, wherever they are in the world.

Be a Great Place to Work

Recruiting and retaining talent is both our greatest asset and, at the same time, one of our biggest challenges. Like most local businesses, finding and keeping high-performing people is critical to our success. I’m immensely proud of the team at JT, our culture of celebrating each other’s accomplishments, continuous learning and our commitment to inclusion and diversity means we are able to attract staff with world-class expertise. It is not only the skills of our people but also their positive engagement that will be vital as we look for ways to modernise the business for the future. We work very hard to make JT an employer of choice and to ensure that our people are fully engaged in our vision. In 2022, we achieved an end of year employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) that secures our place in the top 5% of telecoms companies globally. Remarkable in itself, but even more so given the recent years of substantial change. I’m absolutely thrilled that our loyal people remain with us and that we continue to attract new talent to come with us on this exciting journey.

Grow the Business

JT’s home has always been the Channel Islands, but in order to further invest in our world-class networks locally, we must continue to grow our business internationally to raise the money for these investments. In order to provide the best in class capabilities to our Channel Islands’ customers, we have deliberately invested in the highest levels of networking technology but, in doing so, our networks have far greater capacity and capability than the population of the Channel Islands requires. So, in order to maximise their potential and value, JT continues to expand into international markets by selling and exporting innovative SIM and roaming services to a growing global market.

JT Fraud Protection Services (FPS) is just one of the unique products and services we offer to customers globally. FPS delivers a range of specialist solutions to banks, financial services, and payment solution providers around the world, providing expert intelligence to help indicate, flag and block fraudulent mobile activity. A service that is reliant on the broadest global coverage possible which JT is able to service through our agreements with over 500 roaming partners. JT are also working on a number of new innovative FPS products to launch in 2023, and we also see continued International growth in areas such as messaging and sponsored roaming which we will continue to grow through innovative solutions to strategically identified global markets.

In addition to this, JT continues to be well placed to deliver future-focus technological solutions and we are committed to being at the forefront of digital innovation. On-island, we have a network that is perfectly placed to act as a test bed for new technologies through our diverse partner relationships and globally, JT’s roaming operator footprint presents some further exciting opportunities for future innovative solutions and growth.

Building a Sustainable Future

As well as JT’s planet commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030 in our scope 1 + 2 carbon emissions, we also focus on the broader spectrum of sustainability which extends far beyond that of just carbon emissions. For our people, we know that simply providing great rewards and benefits is no longer the key factor for retention, research tells us that other factors are far more important. As a result, we constantly seek to find more and more ways to meet the values of our people. These include providing an environment where they can enhance their skills and education, ensuring we provide a diverse and equitable workplace and demonstrating that we are a company with a strong sustainability compass. We were one of the first Jersey businesses to be accredited as a living wage employer in 2019 and we continue to review all aspects of well-being to see how we can support our people in as many ways as possible.

In closing, it has been a year of huge change at JT, both structurally and operationally, but it has also been a year of setting the solid foundations for the exciting journey ahead.

Whilst challenging, 2022 has also see a number of great successes. We met our margin targets in both the Channel Islands and International, despite challenging trading conditions; and increased our subscriber base, group revenue, gross and operating profits year-on-year. We’ve connected over 700 of our Guernsey customers to Fibre broadband, reduced our overall carbon footprint by 38%, helped to raise over £40,000 for Autism charities and continue to make significant changes to the way we do things with the customer at the core of every decision we make.

I am delighted that we continue to serve our longstanding loyal customer base but that we also continue to attract new subscribers to our network, this is testament to the value of the service, the products and the experience we work so hard to give our customers.

The roll-out of full-fibre, plus the growth and subsequent sale of our IoT business, were all-consuming projects; but with both projects now successfully complete, the time is right to focus on JT’s operational efficiency as we transform the business into a modern and effective communication provider.

We have a lot of work to do, but I’m confident that we have an exceptional team in place to deliver on our objectives and I very much look forward to working with them on creating a new and exciting JT for our customers.

Thanks Daragh

Hélène Narcy Chief Financial Officer