Competition toughened Cable & Wireless
tribune242 editorial
YESTERDAY'S Gleaner reported that Cable & Wireless Jamaica, trading as LIME Jamaica, "continued its financial haemorrhaging in the December quarter, posting a $1.3 billion loss for the three-month period, nearly triple the $351.4 million of a year earlier."
Despite this its managers continue to look on the bright side, insisting that they are on the verge of turning the company around.
According to The Gleaner, Jamaica LIME has been in "retreat for the past decade since it lost its monopoly in Jamaica's telecommunications market."
"That's what happens to monopolies," said a Bahamian who is close to the situation. LIME Jamaica was doing the same foolishness as BTC because it felt secure in its monopoly, he said, then Digicel, an Irish company with dirt cheap rates, came in and ran it out of business.
It was this lesson from fierce competition that forced Cable & Wireless into the efficient company that it is today with Digicel waiting in the background to meet it head on in the Bahamas when the floodgates are open to competition.
One can now understand why the Bahamas government has offered and C&W - having learned from its Jamaican experience -- has accepted the three-year protection cover from monopolies for BTC's cellular service.
If it were not for this three-year period to build BTC up to meet competitors, the Bahamas' Telecommunications Company would crumble under the strain. C&W, on the other hand, although stumbling in Jamaica is prospering in Barbados and Trinidad.
But there is no room for hubris. There is much to be done to get BTC in a position to meet the competition, and for three years the BTC staff, who are interested in their company, will have an opportunity to prove that they are not among those who deserve to be made redundant.
In an interview with the Jamaican Observer last year, Digicel CEO Colm Delves, said that Digicel looked at the Bahamas, but was not interested in just having a stake in BTC, and so it decided "to pass on that."
"What was being offered there was a stake in the existing operator," said Mr Delves. "We think that when liberalization takes place there, then that will be the appropriate time to enter that market."
So in three years time Digicel and others might be the wolves at the door. Cable & Wireless will have to have BTC ready to meet the challenge and regardless of what Mr Evans, Mr Carroll and their unionists claim, they are babes in the woods, ignorant of the hungry sharks waiting in the world of competition to devour them and BTC.
Judging from the various polls, street talk and radio talk shows, the majority of Bahamians approve the sale of BTC to C&W.
They want better service, more choice, cheaper cell phone rates, access to mobile TV and the ability to phone the Family Islands as a part of the Bahamas, not as foreign islands with overseas charges.
Bahamians are weary of the oft-repeated fiction that they own BTC. Ownership implies having some stake in the company. Although as tax payers they underwrite staff salaries, they cannot even demand good service.
With the sale of BTC Bahamians will eventually be able to buy shares in the company and have share certificates to prove that finally they do own a piece of BTC.
Although Bernard Evans, BCPOU president, claims that unionists are against the sale of BTC, there are unions that have refused to join in his protest.
Many are particularly upset after his reckless threats promising unrest similar to the violence in the past few weeks in Egypt.
Mr Evans has asked Bahamians to have patience with BTC because the public's services "will be affected somewhat" because of the union protest.
Mr Evans seems to forget that Bahamians have exercised years of patience, grudgingly tolerating their high prices and indifferent service.
Now that Bahamians see a way out and a deliverer on the horizon, they are ready to jump ship.
Patience is at an end.
February 14, 2011
tribune242 editorial
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.