The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Regulators yesterday announced a further month’s delay in launching mobile number portability, pushing the start date back to April 25, 2017, as they slammed both the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) and Aliv.

The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), unveiling its final determination on the issue, said it was “clear that both operators had failed to adequately and effectively plan and prepare” for number portability’s launch by the agreed February 14 target date.

It added that based on the responses received from both BTC and Aliv, it was “infeasible” to launch mobile number portability before April 14 and, “out of an abundance of caution” due to Easter’s timing, had elected to move the date back to April 25.

The latest delay comes just one week after URCA advised that, based on initial assessments, the number portability launch date was being moved to March.

Yesterday’s announcement means that Bahamian consumers will now experience a two-month delay in having the ability to switch to Aliv as their provider, while keeping their existing number.

URCA, in its statement of results, expressed disappointment that neither BTC nor Aliv “confirmed or assured their readiness” to meet the initially proposed February 14 launch date, despite the importance placed on it by the regulator.

It first learned there were problems on February 8, when its number portability advisers, Laurasia Associates, said assessments showed neither operator was ready to meet the following week’s target.

URCA’s consultants conducted further “readiness assessments” of BTC and Aliv last week, which confirmed that “both BTC and Aliv had significant work remaining before mobile number portability could be launched with an acceptable degree of confidence in its success”.

“On the basis of Laurasia’s advice, URCA considered that both operators had failed to adequately and effectively plan and prepare for mobile number portability implementation, and to ensure that the persons assigned by both BTC and Aliv as representatives on the mobile number portability working group were in a position to properly and accurately report progress,” URCA said.

“URCA expressed its concern and disappointment in this regard to the operators, and required both BTC and Aliv to assess their own readiness.”

The two rival mobile operators were then required to submit dates when they believed they would be ready to implement number portability, with both providing these to URCA on February 15, 2017.

The communications sector regulator added: “Based on the responses received from BTC and Aliv, URCA now considers it infeasible for mobile number portability to be launched in the Bahamas before April 14, 2017.

“And, out of an abundance of caution, and having regard to the Easter holiday, URCA has determined that it would be appropriate to set the launch date for mobile number portability to April 25, 2017, in order to allow for the remaining critical activities to be carried out by both operators, and for an appropriate buffer to address any further failures by either operator.”

The biggest losers from the two-month number portability delay are the Bahamas’ 315,000-plus mobile subscribers, as it impedes their ability to have full freedom of choice over their provider.

Mobile number portability will allow customers of BTC and Aliv to keep their existing numbers when switching between providers.

This, in turn, is vital to facilitating competition and consumer choice for Bahamian consumers, especially businessmen wanting to retain their existing number for commercial purposes and ease of contact. Number portability’s absence is thus a deterrent to Bahamians switching provider.

Stephen Bereaux, URCA’s acting chief executive, told Tribune Business yesterday that he was “a bit surprised” to discover that the agreed February 14 launch date would not be met.

“I was a bit surprised to discover that what we thought was agreed wasn’t, in fact, the case,” he said of the missed target. “We were disappointed, as we had been working to a set timeframe, one we thought was agreed upon.”

Mr Bereaux said the successive movements in the revised launch date, first to March and now to April 25, within the space of a week was caused by the nature of URCA’s review.

He explained that the regulator and its consultants had been “in the middle” of their readiness assessments when it became obvious that February 14 would not be hit, leading URCA to announce the March timeline.

Once it and Laurasia Associates finished their assessment, Mr Bereaux said the completed findings showed a further push back to March was needed.

“Based on the initial assessment, it was expected to be done in March,” he explained, “and when we looked at it more closely - and the information the operators provided - it became April.”

Mr Bereaux said the initial information from BTC and Aliv “suggested they would be ready sooner than they were; they led us to believe they would be ready quicker than the assessment showed”.

The URCA chief stressed that mobile number portability was an initiative that has to be “operator led”, and there was no point in launching unless both players were ready.

Mr Bearaux said number portability was a six to nine-month process that required “a lot of work” from both BTC and Aliv, in terms of readying and upgrading their networks and training staff.

“We would have hoped they would be at this stage in late December to early January,” he told Tribune Business. “They’re two months away.”

Damian Blackburn, Aliv’s top executive, told Tribune Business that the “clarity” provided by URCA in terms of the April 25, 2017, launch date was important than the extra month’s delay.

He revealed that Aliv, which as BTC’s first rival is responsible for ending its long-standing mobile monopoly, is set to launch a promotional campaign within the next week to encourage Bahamians to “register their interest” in keeping their current number when switching to the new provider.

“All will be good in the end,” Mr Blackburn told Tribune Business. “What matters now is that there’s clarity, and after a long wait for the people of the Bahamas, they will be able to move their number between operators, which is what people have asked for, want and deserve with the liberalisation of the industry.

“All good things come to those who wait, as someone more famous than me once said. We’ll just keep plugging forward with what we have to do.”

Following the certainty provided by URCA’s April 25 determination, Mr Blackburn added: “We will be starting a campaign soon for people to register their interest in moving their number to us. It’ll start in the next week or so.”

Mr Blackburn said that while he believed number portability could be launched in the Bahamas earlier, he agreed with URCA’s caution given Easter’s timing.

“I’m not going to troll over the ‘in’s’ and ‘out’s’,” he added of the February 14 miss. “There’s no value in it.”