The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A former Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) manager yesterday accused the incumbent carrier of an “unspoken corporate strategy” to prevent niche providers entering the market, after his fledgling business was left “dead in the water”.

Trevor Hanna, founder and president of Andros Lakeside Development Company, told Tribune Business he had filed a dispute against BTC with industry regulators, alleging that it was refusing to enter negotiations on an interconnection agreement with him.

Niche providers, such as Mr Hanna, are unable to launch and operate without an interconnection agreement with BTC, due to the latter’s continuing dominance of the fixed-line voice and mobile markets in the Bahamas.

Interconnection allows calls from the customers of one operator to flow seamlessly through to the clients of another, and vice versa. If new entrants, such as Mr Hanna’s firm, are unable to connect their clients with BTC’s customer base - numbering in the hundreds of thousands - they will simply be put out of business.

Mr Hanna told Tribune Business that BTC was failing to abide by the terms of its own Reference Access and Interconnection Offer (RAIO), which is the document that sets the base terms and conditions for interconnection negotiations with it.

The RAIO, which was approved by the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), was designed to prevent disputes such as the one filed by Mr Hanna.

He argued that BTC had “to be forced” to comply with its RAIO, and the Communications Act and accompanying regulations, hence his decision to file the dispute with URCA.

Mr Hanna, in a letter sent yesterday to URCA chief executive, Kathleen Riviere-Smith, warned that the Bahamian communications market “has not grown as expected” due to BTC abusing its dominant market position.

“BTC’s (a 49 per cent Bahamian-owned company) behaviour can be credited for the ruin of a number of small Bahamian-owned businesses,” Mr Hanna told the URCA chief.

“At a time in this country when the unemployment rate is staggering, and entrepreneurship is being encouraged, BTC has sought to compound the problem to its own benefit by destroying small Bahamian-owned business to increase its profits.”

BTC has long been accused of stalling interconnection agreements to preserve its own business interests and market share, behaviour which is typical of incumbent telecommunications monopolies the world over.

The issue pre-dates BTC’s 2011 privatisation and sale to Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), as Systems Resource Group (SRG) frequently complained that its rival was failing to engage with it on interconnection ever since it won the second fixed-line licence in 2003.

SRG managed to survive until its eventual purchase by Cable Bahamas, but former monopolies such as BTC typically have no incentive to facilitate their loss of customers to rivals unless forced to open up by regulators.

Mr Hanna, who spent 26 years in BTC, the last four as a senior manager in the carrier services area dealing with interconnection, is more alive to the consequences than most.

“BTC’s behaviour has also had an adverse effect on the general public, as it has stifled competition and eliminated the choices of providers for the Bahamian consumers,” he wrote to URCA’s Ms Smith.

Pointing to the $5,000 application, and $3,000 yearly licence, fees that small communications providers paid to URCA, Mr Hanna said they were often unable to generate revenue due to BTC”s “denial of access to essential services”.

“As the debt grows for the small operators, and with no revenue incoming, the start-ups are forced into insolvency due to an inability to pay bills,” Mr Hanna said. “And, eventually, its licence is revoked by URCA.

“BTC’s deliberate unspoken corporate strategy to delay and deny access has not served the sector or the country well. The fact that BTC has never been penalised for its behaviour has given BTC the authority to continue its abuse. Such behaviour cannot be allowed to continue.”

Mr Hanna told Mrs Riviere-Smith that Andros Lakeside Development Company was losing $2,500 per day for every day it was unable to interconnect with BTC and launch services.

In a subsequent interview with Tribune Business, Mr Hanna explained that Andros Lakeside Development Company was created in September 2015 as a wi-fi services provider, which would also offer calling cards and call termination services.

Its business plan is focused on areas in the Family Islands that Mr Hanna believes are “under-served” by existing communications providers, or where service quality is poor, such as parts of Exuma and Andros.

However, Andros Lakeside Development Company requires interconnection with BTC’s network to successfully launch services.

Mr Hanna said the company had “spent quite a few hours per month trying to get it launched” since last September, and he estimated that around $50,000-$60,000 had already been invested in the business - including the necessary application and other URCA fees.

“BTC is not even communicating with us,” he told Tribune Business. “It would be easier to co-locate our equipment at their locations, so we’re pretty much dead in the water, so to speak.

“BTC is still doing what it wants, and is not following the guidelines set by URCA. Who’s going to police BTC if it does not follow its own RAIO? I’m hoping URCA will step in. It has the responsibility, as we’re paying them these monies.

“From how it was there, it has to be enforced upon them. They [BTC] have to be forced to do it. As every day goes by, it’s a cost to not be in business.”

Mr Hanna added of BTC’s deliberate delaying of interconnection agreements with other carriers. “That’s the unspoken corporate strategy at BTC. I know that first hand.”

Leon Williams, BTC’s chief executive, did not respond to a detailed Tribune Business e-mail seeking comment. His direct office line was also unable to take messages when this newspaper called for him.

Documents supplied to Tribune Business show that Mr Hanna first wrote to Mr Williams, seeking an interconnection agreement with BTC at its Poinciana Drive location, on November 27, 2015.

He wrote again on December 3,2015, after no response was received to the first letter and was contacted by Mark White, BTC’s carrier services manager for other licensed operators.

Following an exchange of documents, Mr White and Mr Hanna met on December 7, 2015, to discuss a possible interconnection agreement.

However, nothing further was apparently heard from BTC, prompting Mr Hanna to complain to Mr Williams in a January 6, 2016, letter.