The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A "yearning for better" Internet and TV services means the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) can reverse recent revenue declines if it deploys its latest infrastructure more rapidly, its past union president believes.

Bernard Evans, pictured, who did not seek re-election to the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers (BCPOU) top post after serving three consecutive terms, told Tribune Business that BTC and its majority owner had responded too slowly to loss of its mobile monopoly.

He argued that the incumbent carrier had needed to move faster in rolling out its Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) infrastructure to better compete with BISX-listed Cable Bahamas on Internet and TV, the two areas long dominated by the latter.

BTC's ultimate parent, Liberty Latin America (LiLAC), is now pinning its hopes on a new management team led by Jamaican Garry Sinclair to reverse the $100m drop in BTC's revenue since its mobile monopoly peak - a goal that Mr Evans described as "very realistic" if the carrier can raise the pace.

"I worked in the enterprise department as an account manager responsible for banks and hotels, and I haven't lost contact with most of them," Mr Evans told Tribune Business. "There's a yearning for better service in Internet and TV, and if we can deploy that FTTH fast enough we will reap the rewards from getting that done; the sooner the better.

"All the machinations in getting FTTH to the home out there, it's been slow in getting that done......"

The ex-BCPOU president, who still remains head of the umbrella National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU), spoke out after Balan Nair, LiLAC's chief executive, recently told investment analysts that BTC's parent was targeting a 2018 second half turnaround in its Bahamian subsidiary's top-line.

Mr Sinclair and his management team will be key to achieving this, and Mr Evans said he was present when the new BTC chief executive was introduced to the staff and union some two-three weeks ago.

"BTC is in for somewhat of a fight to continue to survive," he told Tribune Business. "BTC's principal problem is two-fold, maybe even three. A new company was coming into the market, and mobile probably makes up the bulk of any telecommunications company's revenue - between two-thirds to three-quarters. That's how it is for anyone in the region.

"They knew it was coming, and knew market share would leave BTC, but thought they would offset that by increasing Internet and TV. Even though BTC has the better service when it comes to programming, they have been somewhat slow in deploying FTTH in New Providence.

"BTC believes if they can get 70 percent penetration on FTTH that will create a dent, and hopefully that makes up the shortfall from loss of mobile customers."

Mr Evans said Mr Sinclair's experience as Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) chief executive in Jamaica, where he competed head-to-head with Digicel, would stand him and BTC in good stead as they seek to reverse the top-line decline against Cable Bahamas and Aliv, which it controls.

He described Mr Sinclair as "a real chief executive", pointing out that previous incumbent, Bahamian Dexter Cartwright, came from a financial rather than a telecommunications background.

"Dexter did the best he could, but he was not a true chief executive for telecommunications," Mr Evans explained. "He worked on the money side." The former BCPOU head, though, expressed concern that BTC would likely have to share Mr Sinclair's services as chief executive with CWC's Jamaica and Cayman operations.