The Tribune

BY NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE country's two major communications players have been given until month's end to "amend and resubmit" revised resale broadband offers to the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA).

The regulator in its recently released Final Determination on its review of the "resale" obligations imposed on BTC and Cable Bahamas in 2010, reconfirmed the significant market power (SMP) designations of BTC and CBL in wholesale fixed broadband services and the need to maintain this obligation.

URCA noted this SMP obligation aims to provide a low-cost option for alternative providers to enter the fixed broadband market and offer retail services in direct competition to BTC and CBL without having to deploy their own network infrastructure and therefore furthers URCA's objective of promoting competition.

The regulator said it was concerned there had not been any take-up of the resale broadband services to date given the elapsed time since the offers were available, stating several industry players raised concerns about the nature of the current offers.

BTC and Cable Bahamas had slammed the review as flawed and argued there has been no serious demand for resale broadband services. They had also argued the regulator failed to account for market changes since 2010, while ignoring the strong competition for retail consumers that made wholesale regulation basically unnecessary. In particular, the providers had argued the regulator had omitted the impact of mobile Internet services which have been launched by both BTC and its rival, Aliv.

In its determination, URCA said it maintains the view that "barriers to entry in the relevant market remain high".

"As set out in the SMP assessment in the Preliminary Determination, deploying alternative end-to-end fixed or fixed wireless infrastructure is time-and capital-intensive. Indeed, allied to this, URCA notes that there has been no further entry to the broadband market in recent years and existing providers have not expanded beyond their initial network coverage, rather choosing to focus on specific parts of The Bahamas only," the regulator said.

"URCA has determined that BTC and Cable Bahamas continue to offer resale fixed broadband products. Furthermore, both SMP licensees are required to review and regularly update their current resale fixed broadband products to ensure these are adequate and up-to-date, with all such updates having to be submitted to URCA for its review and approval; and BTC and CBL shall continue to publish the tariff and non-price terms and conditions on which their resale broadband offers are provided (i.e., by publishing the URCA approved offers prominently on their websites and additionally making such information available in other formats upon request)", URCA said.

It further noted: "To ensure that the resale fixed broadband offers remain up-to-date and in-line with the SMP licensees' retail fixed broadband service offerings, BTC and CBL are required, at least every 12 months from the date of URCA's approval of the offers, to revise the overall price and non-price terms of their resale fixed broadband offers to ensure these are up-to-date and in-line with their retail fixed broadband service offerings. The revised resale broadband offers should be submitted to URCA for its review and approval no less than 30 days before the date on which the revision is due, with the SMP Licensees highlighting to URCA any changes made to these offers."