The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The BAHAMAS Telecommunications Company (BTC) is optimistic that by summer's end the entire nation will be covered by its 4G (fourth generation) network, its chief executive telling Tribune Business it was also making significant progress with its next generation network (NGN) rollout.

Speaking with Tribune Business at the recent opening of BTC's Bay and George Street retail outlet, Geoff Houston said: "We are only at the end of month three with the 4G network, and we did say it would be a bit of a rocky journey as we opened up.

"We had a little bit of an issue with dropped calls early on, which we feel we have now fixed. Obviously you will never eliminate dropped calls on a network entirely. We are now on to the next phase of rolling out more. We rolled out our 4G site in Abaco last week. It's well advanced.

"I'm still optimistic that by the end of the summer we would have the whole Bahamas done."

BTC launched its 4G network when it opened its Mall at Marathon flagship store following a $500,000 makeover late last year. The company has invested $43 million in its 4G mobile network.

Mr Houston added: "We are still working as aggressively as we can to get it done. We are not just putting a 4G network in, we are putting in a brand new 2G network in as well - which will carry the voice - and the 4G will carry the data. That's kind of like a bit of an engineering challenge in itself."

The launch of 4G fulfills a key commitment that Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) made when it purchased 51 per cent of BTC back in April 2011.

Speaking on BTC's NGN rollout, Mr Houston told Tribune Business: "The next generation network is coming on very well In fact, we started to cut over Cat Island over the last two or three weeks.

"We want to make Cat Island like a showcase of what a real next generation network looks like from end to end, and that's going well. We have cut over quite a bit of the network in New Providence. That's going well, and we are selling a lot of our high speed broadband, 8 mega byte (MB) products. Where we have it available, customers are buying it and they're enjoying the service. It's going to take time. That's a bit longer term than 4G, it's a lot more complicated."

Mr Houston added: "I don't expect we will get the NGN fully cut over until March or April of next year. The company has already invested quite a bit I money in the NGN. I think the total investment before we arrived as Cable and Wireless was $50 million plus.

"It's getting another multi-million dollar investment to get operational. We are very confident now that we know how to bring it to market, and it's now gathering momentum. I like to think we have landed ourselves well over the last 12 months."