The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A TRADE union leader yesterday denied that the Bahamas Telecommunications Company's (BTC) latest voluntary separation (VSEP) offer was driven by increased competition, adding: "This is nothing new".

Bernard Evans, the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union's president (BCPOU), told Tribune Business that the telecommunications provider wanted to reduce the age of its workforce, with the VSEP offer having been discussed - and on the table - since October last year.

Mr Evans told Tribune Business: "There isn't a target number. There may be one but they haven't expressed it to us. We have said before that BTC has an aged workforce. The average tenure of service is almost 27 years. This is an opportunity for certain persons who have expressed an interest in wanting to leave.

"This has been probably the third or fourth such exercise since the sale of BTC. This is nothing new. We are pretty much getting used to this, and they felt the need to put it back on the table again.

"There were some preliminary discussions on this back in October of last year. I don't think there is a target number, but I would think persons who are 50 and over, with 50 being the qualifying age for retirement, are persons who may take this opportunity.

"Everyone over the next two or three days will get to look at what their package would be and get to discuss it with their families. We have been through this before."

BTC, in a recent statement, announced that as part of a "company wide" strategic approach to transform its business to a more "customer-centric, high performing organisation", it was making adjustments to how it runs its business. This included carrying out necessary network upgrades, placing more focus on training and development, and improving back office support to better serve customers. "As part of this broader programme, BTC has implemented a voluntary separation programme (VSEP) to help ensure we have the right structure to succeed, and to address issues in a competitive environment," the company said.

Data released by BTC's parent, Liberty Latin America (LiLAC), revealed that the company lost over 60,000 mobile customers, almost 20 per cent of its market, in just over one year as a result of competition. At end-2017 BTC had 228,100 pre-paid subscribers and 26,800 post-paid customers, giving it a total base of 254,900 persons. This compared to the 282,000 pre-paid and 33,000 post-paid subscribers that Liberty's 2016 accounts showed it as possessing one year earlier, which was just after Aliv, BTC's first-ever mobile rival launched in November 2016.

Still, Mr Evans said BTC's continued restructuring was not solely due to competition. "I don't want people to think, and some have attributed this to competition, but far be it from that," he added.

"We anticipated that anywhere from 20-30 per cent would go to the new competitor. What was not anticipated was what we saw over the last four or five years with the advancement of data and bandwidth, the new apps coming out like WhatsApp and the ability to communicate via other mediums instead of incurring roaming charges.

"There was a fall-off on toll charges and roaming charges. Text messaging and all those things that used to be revenue streams have all fallen off due to the advancement of technology. BTC was experiencing losses for a while. Even inter-island calls fell off because people aren't using landlines. All these variables played a role in BTC losing revenue," said Mr Evans.

"It's not really about the competitor and what they were able to take. BTC made its initial downsizing exercise in 2012 in preparation for the new entrant, so they had almost four years pretty much of enjoying it as the lone operator at that time with a reduced staff of almost 600 persons, and so they would have recognised savings from the reduction four years ago. While competition may be a contributing factor it is not really the overall means for which this exercise has come about."