The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Cable Bahamas yesterday said it was hoping number portability will drive it to a 30-35 per cent fixed-line voice market share by 2014 year-end, describing its penetration levels to-date as “remarkable”.

David Burrows, the BISX-listed provider’s head of marketing, indicated it was counting on the newly-launched porting capability to take its two year-old REVOICE business to the next level, and help snatch up to 10 percentage points of market share from the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) this year alone.

Pegging Cable Bahamas’ current fixed-line voice market share at around 25 per cent, Mr Burrows told Tribune Business that to describe this level of penetration as remarkable was “an understatement”.

He added that REVOICE’s growth rate and market share performance in just two years was “in a different realm” to other liberalised markets studied by Cable Bahamas, the BISX-listed provider having already fared better than new entrants in those countries.

While Cable Bahamas had gained several hundred new customers in the two months since number portability’s early December 2013 launch, Mr Burrows said this was still ‘a work in progress’ where Bahamian consumers were concerned.

“We’re still working through the customer education process and things like that,” he explained. “Some people are shutting off their service prior to porting.

“We’re on a bit of a learning curve, but at the same time we’re seeing transactions with regard to porting. It is going well, and we’re working with URCA and the porting company [administrator], as well as BTC.”

Number portability is vital to fostering competition and choice in the Bahamian communications market, as it allows consumers to keep their existing numbers when switching - at minimal cost - to another operator.

This is especially valuable to Bahamian businesses, who no longer will have to risk a loss of business or spend time and money on informing customers of phone number changes.

Mr Burrows said that in terms of customers switching providers “we’re seeing it coming our way more than going their way”, indicating Bahamians were largely moving from BTC to Cable Bahamas rather than the other way around.

That is not unexpected, given that BTC is the fixed-line voice incumbent with dominant market share, and Mr Burrows said Cable Bahamas would attempt to increase porting numbers via a new promotional campaign it expects to launch by month’s end.

Emphasising that this would focus on customer education as well as “acquisition” when it came to number portability, the Cable Bahamas marketing head said it had also gained business customers.

“We’re doing very well on the commercial side when it comes to porting,” Mr Burrows said. “We’ve got a number of major chains and businesses moving over to us.

“It’s not just the individuals but franchises that have multiple locations and things like that.”

He added that Cable Bahamas would have “a better idea of what to expect” in terms of number portability’s impact on its fixed-line voice subscriber numbers once its promotion launched, estimating that the service had already helped it to gain “several hundred” new clients.

“We’re definitely pursuing it very vigorously,” Mr Burrows told Tribune Business of number portability. “We certainly hope that by the end of the year it’s increased our market share to 30-35 per cent.”

Suggesting that REVOICE’s performance to-date had been unique, he added: “If you were to go back and take a look at any market that had a monopoly situation with regard to voice, and incumbents that came in, I don’t think you’ll find anybody has performed as well as we have done in the short time we have performed,” he added.

“To say that our inroads into the market are remarkable would be an understatement.”

Mr Burrows argued that Cable Bahamas’ numbers were “in a different realm”, adding that the company’s current 25 per cent market share was ahead of foreign carriers who had been competing against their home country monopolies for longer.

“We’re at 25 per cent, and we’ve not seen any market that’s ahead of that,” he said. “For us to do that within two years is remarkable.”

Mr Burrows told Tribune Business that Cable Bahamas had moved rapidly to counteract BTC’s efforts to make inroads into its dominant broadband Internet market share, having increased its own download speeds five times’ last year.

Mr Burrows said Cable Bahamas’ had increased its REVON Internet subscriber base by around 3,000-4,000 over the past year, expanding from 48,000-49,000 to around 52,000.

Estimating that Cable Bahamas’ broadband Internet market share remained at around 75 per cent, Mr Burrows said: “We’re going to continue on that trend.

“We know we have the better product, better network, so we’re going to ensure we keep the market share we have. We know there’s not too much of the market out there not already served by us.”

Mr Burrows reiterated that Cable Bahamas is likely to bid on the second cellular licence that will be put up for auction post-April 6, adding: “We would certainly be very interested to hear what’s going to happen there, no question about it.”