“BTC Missed Out On Opportunities,” Says Williams
By Scieska Adderley
Former Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) President and CEO Leon Williams believes that the country’s telecommunications provider is the most profitable government entity, despite missing several opportunities that would have made the company even more competitive and valuable.
Mr. Williams was the keynote speaker at the Rotary Club of West Nassau’s weekly meeting yesterday.
During his address, he explained that he had a certain vision for BTC while he was at the helm.
According to Mr. Williams, his main goal was to raise enough money so that BTC could grow outside of The Bahamas.
"We went to Haiti where we built a $6 million cable to Haiti. The Government of Haiti offered us the first right of refusal for a DSL and a wireless network. It would have cost $30 million to do the GSM in Haiti. We did not see and when I say we did not see, other people did not see the value of Haiti."
Mr. Williams said if BTC had gotten its services off the ground in Haiti, using just 10 per cent of that country’s customers, in three years that alone would have generated BTC’s annual profits.
He noted that Digicel tapped into that market and within the first three months, the company had 500,000 customers, then in its first year, that number increased to 1.6 million customers.
Currently, Digicel has 2.6 million customers in Haiti.
Mr. Williams explained that BTC has also missed out on marketing its VIBE phone service internationally.
"We then created the VIBE network. We had the Bahamian girl on the box, a Jamaican girl on the box and we had a Haitian girl on the box. The idea was to go to Miami and sell the VIBE in Miami, 1.8 million in Miami. We even had it on Concourse D at the Miami International Aiport. We were even advertising where no one else was advertising in that same area in the United States."
Mr. Williams said it is important to expand the market beyond The Bahamas.
He compared it to Cable Bahamas, which has over the years expanded its services to countries such as Barbados, Jamaica, Curacao and the Dominican Republic.
Overall, Mr. Williams noted there are 20 million customers on The Bahamas’ border-markets that can be exploited, but unfortunately have not.
February 28, 2011
jonesbahamas
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.
Showing posts with label Cable Bahamas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cable Bahamas. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is simply fed up with the double standard being exhibited by the Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority (URCA) in its dealing with BTC vis-à-vis Cable Bahamas
BTC blasts URCA 'double standards'
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) yesterday accused the industry regulator of employing "double standards" in its approach to product unbundling, telling Tribune Business it had been "perplexed" by the decision to give Cable Bahamas until 2013 to completely untie its cable TV and broadband Internet offerings.
Marlon Johnson, BTC's vice-president of sales and marketing, told Tribune Business that the state-owned incumbent wanted to ensure there was a regulatory "level playing field" between itself and BISX-listed Cable Bahamas as Significant Market Power (SMP) operators, contrasting the "sliding scale" imposed on the latter with the requirement that it instantly unbundle its own broadband Internet offering from its phone services.
As Tribune Business revealed last week, Cable Bahamas has been given until end-2013 to complete the 100 per cent separation of its cable TV and Internet products on New Providence and Grand Bahama, something Mr Johnson yesterday described as fundamentally unfair, arguing that the BISX-listed company had not complied with its SMP obligations and should not be allowed to enter other markets.
He added that the extended time period given to Cable Bahamas to 'unbundle' those services would "stifle" consumer choice and the arrival of new competition into those markets, since for two years new and existing Bahamian customers would be required to take both services - even though they may only want one.
Describing the decision by the Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority (URCA) as "outrageous", Mr Johnson told Tribune Business: "We have been complaining for some time. We can't understand why Cable Bahamas has been given this sliding scale going on for two years, which seems to us goes against consumer choice and competition, which is URCA's primary mandate.
"If it's good for us as an SMP player in this market, it should be applied to other SMP operators. I don't think that's unreasonable. That's why this particular decision has left us perplexed.
"If everybody plays by the same rules, BTC has no objection. We want to ensure a level playing field, and that carriers with the same SMP designation and obligations are held to the same standards."
BTC, he added, was now petitioning URCA to obtain a "better understanding" of the reasons for its decision on Cable Bahamas.
BTC's argument is that while it was immediately forced to untie its broadband DSL Internet service from its phone products, Cable Bahamas has been given much greater latitude in complying with its SMP obligations, thus leading to its charge that the latter is getting off 'lightly', while it is subject to a 'heavy-handed approach' by URCA.
Tribune Business reported on Friday that Cable Bahamas had to complete the 'unbundling' of its cable TV and Internet products at 20 per cent of its New Providence nodes, plus 10 per cent of its Grand Bahama nodes and 15 per cent of those in Abaco and Eleuthera, by end-2010. It successfully met this, enabling it to meet the SMP obligations.
Cable Bahamas has to complete unbundling at 45 per cent of New Providence nodes by end-December 2011, achieving 75 per cent by end-2012 and 100 per cent at end-December 2013.
On Grand Bahama, the 2011 target is 30 per cent, with the 2012 and 2013 thresholds 70 per cent and 100 per cent. For Eleuthera and Abaco, the job is supposed to be 50 per cent complete this year, and concluded in 2012.
Mr Johnson yesterday told Tribune Business that while Cable Bahamas was the "dominant player" in broadband Internet, for two years a significant number of Bahamians would also be forced to take its cable TV services to access this product, even though they may not want the latter. This, he added, "stifles" competition in both markets.
BTC, Mr Johnson said, had to spend significant "man hours and money" on unbundling its own products, something it accepted it had to do.
"We're perplexed and cannot understand the rationale," he told Tribune Business, adding that the situation gave BTC "pause" before it looked at expanding into other markets it was not already in.
"Our prominent concern is that there is equitable treatment based on the standards implemented by URCA itself, he told this newspaper.
In a statement, Mr Johnson said: "We find it impossible to find even a remotely digestible justification for this ruling on the part of URCA. It is wholly inconsistent with URCA's stated mandate in respect of customer choice and its precedents in respect of the treatment of companies with significant market power (SMP) within the Bahamas.
"Simply put: It is outrageous! What is happening is that Cable Bahamas has been granted an additional two years to ensure that any one of its customers can buy Internet services from that company [has] to buy cable television services .
"At the same time, the regulator some two years ago insisted that BTC separate its Internet service from basic phone service - a requirement that BTC complied with. Why the double treatment? Why must those consumers who only want Internet service be forced to buy cable television service from Cable Bahamas, while at the same time BTC is forced to provide its Internet and telephone services separate and apart. It is an egregious decision.
"While URCA accepts that Cable Bahamas maintains SMP in the provision of basic Internet service, the regulator has willingly been complicit in permitting Cable Bahamas to use this position to force its customers to buy a television service that the customer may not want.
"This is not fair to those consumers who only want to buy a single service, nor does it help develop the market place for broadcast television. Hard as we try, we cannot find a single solitary angle that would give justification to this action."
Mr Johnson added: "It is our view that the provisions in the regulatory regime suggest that BTC and the other licensed operators should have been given the opportunity to assess the impact of the generous concession granted to Cable Bahamas with respect to the untying of its broadband service from pay television while it was still in the draft stage.
"Why is it that BTC and other operators in the market did not have an opportunity to respond to these incredibly generous allowances to the dominant player in the broadband and broadcast television market?"
And Mr Johnson said: "BTC is simply fed up with this double standard being exhibited by URCA in its dealing with BTC vis-à-vis Cable Bahamas. We both have reasonably been deemed dominant players in the various segments of our market, and with that has come the Significant Market Player [SMP] designations and obligations. "And while BTC has expended significant resources to date in its efforts to comply with its SMP obligations, it seem pretty clear to us that Cable Bahamas has been given a free ride, despite the fact that they had and have fewer obligations to satisfy the regulatory when compared to BTC."
February 08, 2011
tribune242
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) yesterday accused the industry regulator of employing "double standards" in its approach to product unbundling, telling Tribune Business it had been "perplexed" by the decision to give Cable Bahamas until 2013 to completely untie its cable TV and broadband Internet offerings.
Marlon Johnson, BTC's vice-president of sales and marketing, told Tribune Business that the state-owned incumbent wanted to ensure there was a regulatory "level playing field" between itself and BISX-listed Cable Bahamas as Significant Market Power (SMP) operators, contrasting the "sliding scale" imposed on the latter with the requirement that it instantly unbundle its own broadband Internet offering from its phone services.
As Tribune Business revealed last week, Cable Bahamas has been given until end-2013 to complete the 100 per cent separation of its cable TV and Internet products on New Providence and Grand Bahama, something Mr Johnson yesterday described as fundamentally unfair, arguing that the BISX-listed company had not complied with its SMP obligations and should not be allowed to enter other markets.
He added that the extended time period given to Cable Bahamas to 'unbundle' those services would "stifle" consumer choice and the arrival of new competition into those markets, since for two years new and existing Bahamian customers would be required to take both services - even though they may only want one.
Describing the decision by the Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority (URCA) as "outrageous", Mr Johnson told Tribune Business: "We have been complaining for some time. We can't understand why Cable Bahamas has been given this sliding scale going on for two years, which seems to us goes against consumer choice and competition, which is URCA's primary mandate.
"If it's good for us as an SMP player in this market, it should be applied to other SMP operators. I don't think that's unreasonable. That's why this particular decision has left us perplexed.
"If everybody plays by the same rules, BTC has no objection. We want to ensure a level playing field, and that carriers with the same SMP designation and obligations are held to the same standards."
BTC, he added, was now petitioning URCA to obtain a "better understanding" of the reasons for its decision on Cable Bahamas.
BTC's argument is that while it was immediately forced to untie its broadband DSL Internet service from its phone products, Cable Bahamas has been given much greater latitude in complying with its SMP obligations, thus leading to its charge that the latter is getting off 'lightly', while it is subject to a 'heavy-handed approach' by URCA.
Tribune Business reported on Friday that Cable Bahamas had to complete the 'unbundling' of its cable TV and Internet products at 20 per cent of its New Providence nodes, plus 10 per cent of its Grand Bahama nodes and 15 per cent of those in Abaco and Eleuthera, by end-2010. It successfully met this, enabling it to meet the SMP obligations.
Cable Bahamas has to complete unbundling at 45 per cent of New Providence nodes by end-December 2011, achieving 75 per cent by end-2012 and 100 per cent at end-December 2013.
On Grand Bahama, the 2011 target is 30 per cent, with the 2012 and 2013 thresholds 70 per cent and 100 per cent. For Eleuthera and Abaco, the job is supposed to be 50 per cent complete this year, and concluded in 2012.
Mr Johnson yesterday told Tribune Business that while Cable Bahamas was the "dominant player" in broadband Internet, for two years a significant number of Bahamians would also be forced to take its cable TV services to access this product, even though they may not want the latter. This, he added, "stifles" competition in both markets.
BTC, Mr Johnson said, had to spend significant "man hours and money" on unbundling its own products, something it accepted it had to do.
"We're perplexed and cannot understand the rationale," he told Tribune Business, adding that the situation gave BTC "pause" before it looked at expanding into other markets it was not already in.
"Our prominent concern is that there is equitable treatment based on the standards implemented by URCA itself, he told this newspaper.
In a statement, Mr Johnson said: "We find it impossible to find even a remotely digestible justification for this ruling on the part of URCA. It is wholly inconsistent with URCA's stated mandate in respect of customer choice and its precedents in respect of the treatment of companies with significant market power (SMP) within the Bahamas.
"Simply put: It is outrageous! What is happening is that Cable Bahamas has been granted an additional two years to ensure that any one of its customers can buy Internet services from that company [has] to buy cable television services .
"At the same time, the regulator some two years ago insisted that BTC separate its Internet service from basic phone service - a requirement that BTC complied with. Why the double treatment? Why must those consumers who only want Internet service be forced to buy cable television service from Cable Bahamas, while at the same time BTC is forced to provide its Internet and telephone services separate and apart. It is an egregious decision.
"While URCA accepts that Cable Bahamas maintains SMP in the provision of basic Internet service, the regulator has willingly been complicit in permitting Cable Bahamas to use this position to force its customers to buy a television service that the customer may not want.
"This is not fair to those consumers who only want to buy a single service, nor does it help develop the market place for broadcast television. Hard as we try, we cannot find a single solitary angle that would give justification to this action."
Mr Johnson added: "It is our view that the provisions in the regulatory regime suggest that BTC and the other licensed operators should have been given the opportunity to assess the impact of the generous concession granted to Cable Bahamas with respect to the untying of its broadband service from pay television while it was still in the draft stage.
"Why is it that BTC and other operators in the market did not have an opportunity to respond to these incredibly generous allowances to the dominant player in the broadband and broadcast television market?"
And Mr Johnson said: "BTC is simply fed up with this double standard being exhibited by URCA in its dealing with BTC vis-à-vis Cable Bahamas. We both have reasonably been deemed dominant players in the various segments of our market, and with that has come the Significant Market Player [SMP] designations and obligations. "And while BTC has expended significant resources to date in its efforts to comply with its SMP obligations, it seem pretty clear to us that Cable Bahamas has been given a free ride, despite the fact that they had and have fewer obligations to satisfy the regulatory when compared to BTC."
February 08, 2011
tribune242
Monday, November 29, 2004
The Blue Telecom group Makes New Bid For The Bahamas Telecommunications Company - BTC
Blue Making New Bid For BTC
By Candia Dames
Nassau, Bahamas
29th November 2004
One year after it was kicked out of the race to purchase a minority stake in The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), the Blue Telecom group has made adjustments to its bid to try to meet the government's expectations and the reality of the existing value of BTC.
Blue's President Lindbergh Smith, in an interview with the Bahama Journal on Sunday, said his company still has the right ingredients to become the long-awaited strategic partner in the state-owned telephone company.
The Bahama Journal contacted him after Minister of State for Finance James Smith indicated that while there is no 'formal privatisation process' in place, the government is still open to favourable bids.
Mr. Smith, the Blue executive, also said the need to privatise BTC is even more urgent at this time.
"I think it's a necessity now based on the competitive forces that exist in the market place in The Bahamas", he said. "It's evitable that the government has to get out of the telecom business in order for the company to be on good footing to compete against entities like SRG (System Resource Group) and Cable Bahamas."
SRG recently announced that it is starting its business and residential services and intends to compete head on with BTC.
SRG President Paul Hutton-Ashkenny said his company's entrance into the telecom industry is an indication that the government sees the liberalization of the telecommunications sector as a critical pre-condition for achieving economic development in the country.
Industry sources say that it is most urgent that the government recognize the extreme dilemma that the entire telecom industry and the financial and business community would suffer if the government does not move quickly to relinquish its control of BTC and put it into the hands of an entity that has the financial capabilities, management and technical know-how to allow the company to be able to compete in the local market against SRG, Cable Bahamas and other competitors that are soon to come.
They say that based on the contract proposal issued to The Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union last week, it is clear that the board and executive management team of BTC recognize that the company has to be repositioned for competition.
The proposal calls for the benefits now enjoyed by BTC employees to be slashed up to 60 percent.
"We are sure that the shareholders of Cable Bahamas and SRG are laughing all the way to the bank because of the government's reluctance and procrastination in the privatisation process of BTC", said one industry insider.
Minister Smith, meanwhile, said the move toward privatisation is an ongoing exercise.
"It's just that it's not going to be done in the way it was done originally", he said. "If a prospective buyer came along with the right attitude and the right price, I'm sure the government would be obliged to entertain the bid. So the process may have come basically to a halt, but not the intent."
He said that BTC has to "continue to do things to develop and expand its managerial capabilities, develop its staff, while at the same time look for efficient ways of government having to divest its interests."
Mr. Smith (Blue President) believes that now is the time for the government to move ahead with the privatisation process.
"For the board and management of BTC to assume that they are in a position financially and futuristically to compete in a smaller entity like SRG or Cable Bahamas is very fool hardy", he said.
In his budget communication to parliament in May, Prime Minister Perry Christie made it clear that the recent termination of the privatisation process does not mean that the government has abandoned the privatisation of BTC.
"On the contrary, the privatisation of BTC remains an important item of my government's economic agenda", he said. "Accordingly, the privatisation will be re-launched as soon as circumstances reasonably allow and on a basis, moreover, that will take adequate account of the lessons that were learned in the earlier process."
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