The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

CABLE Bahamas’ top executive has pledged that resolving customer complaints is “our number one priority” and has been “drilled into the ethos” of all employees ahead of a regulatory probe into its TV services.

Franklyn Butler, the BISX-listed communications provider’s chief executive, told Tribune Business it will “do all we can” to ensure its legacy cable TV product matches what it described as its market-leading broadband Internet and other services after the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) last week promised an investigation following customer complaints on service quality.

Cable Bahamas, in a statement responding to this newspaper’s article on URCA’s probe pledge, said “many of these complaints stem from the limitations of our legacy technology”. It added: “There are some technical issues which we can and are addressing now, while investing in upgrades to resolve the more systemic challenges.”

The statement promised REV TV customers “that we hear them”, while promising that Cable Bahamas “remains committed to delivering the best TV experience on the market”. The BISX-listed provider said it eventually planned to launch its own IPTV (Internet Protocol) TV to compete with the likes of Netflix, and was “in the process of investing millions in our next generation network to leapfrog the challenges we have today”. However, the statement did not explain precisely what it meant by “legacy limitations” or “systemic challenges”, or detail what will be done to fix them and the amount of investment required.

Mr Butler, too, declined to give specifics, although he suggested more details might be forthcoming within the next three weeks. “We have a plan that we’re working through,” he told this newspaper. “We’re still negotiating certain things, and I don’t want to get into the middle of that until we get it finalised.”

Confirming that this “plan” will also be shared with URCA, Mr Butler added that the consumer response to the regulator’s consultation on the repackaging of Cable Bahamas’ TV services was “not totally surprising”.

He said: “From time to time URCA escalates consumer complaints for us to address. As we get these escalations from URCA when people do complain, we have a very clear process that any complaints escalated through URCA we respond to in a timely manner. If you speak to URCA, they’ll tell you we’re pretty efficient and effective at addressing those.”

Asked how important dealing with customer concerns in a timely and effective manner was to Cable Bahamas, Mr Butler replied: “Our number one priority. It is something we drill into the ethos of all team members. When you get a customer complaint, we don’t care how small it is, we don’t care how many times we have heard the complaint. It’s something we instill in the ethos of the organisation.

“We appreciate the issues customers have with the TV services, and will be shortly announcing a plan to address those. We are aware of the issues that occurred earlier this year. It’s something we take very seriously. We appreciate the inconvenience it causes to customers. We’re going to do all we can to make sure the TV experience is similar to what they have with the Internet and other services.”

Cable Bahamas’ statement referred to REV Internet being “consistently recognised as the fastest network in The Bahamas by the international performance rater, Ookla”. Mr Butler, meanwhile, indicated that Cable Bahamas’ will likely pursue a twin-track approach of immediate short-term fixes alongside a more comprehensive network upgrade.

“Those we can fix, we will fix,” he added. “Anything beyond short-term fixes we will address that as well. We have two strategies that include an upgrade of our core system, and we will make whatever investment is needed to benefit our customers.”

Mr Butler spoke out after URCA pledged to investigate Cable Bahamas’ TV service quality and said it was “majorly concerned” by the length and frequency of outages suffered by customers.

In announcing it has approved the restructuring of REV cable TV packages, URCA said it was unable to ignore “recurring complaints” from Bahamians about service interruptions and other issues.

Reporting on the replies received to the REV package restructuring consultation, URCA said: “Complaints regarding Cable Bahamas’ service quality was a recurring theme in the responses. In addition to public complaints, URCA is aware of persistent and wide-scale service interruptions in the form of error messages consistently appearing on screen, regular service outages at 2am, pixelated channels and other issues.”

“Although comments concerning service quality are out of scope for the current application, URCA is majorly concerned with the level and frequency of service interruptions and will open an independent investigation following the publication of URCA’s final decision to better understand these and other matters surrounding Cable Bahamas’ service quality.”

The communications industry regulator urged Cable Bahamas customers to bring such issues to its attention via its “complaint handling process”, and added that its “quality of service” regulations may be able to redress some of the problems.

However, URCA did not do what many had urged in their feedback, and require that service quality issues be addressed before it approved Cable Bahamas’ REV channel package restructuring and any associated price increases.

“Many respondents were unhappy with Cable Bahamas’ television service quality due to recurring outages, error messages, pixelated channels, an incorrect TV guide (what was stated on the TV guide did not match what was shown on TV), and dissatisfaction with DVR boxes,” URCA said in a deeper description of the feedback received.

“Respondents felt that Cable Bahamas should correct its service quality issues before restructuring its packages or increasing its prices. Respondents were unhappy that they did not receive any reimbursement for Cable Bahamas’ outages or service disruptions.

“In their view, Cable Bahamas did not practice any leniency when applying late fees or sending bill reminders despite regular disruptions. Some blamed Cable Bahamas’ reduction in subscribers on the poor quality of service instead of the advent of competing streaming services which Cable Bahamas attributed the subscriber attrition to in its applications,” URCA continued.

“Others claimed they would be willing to spend more on pay TV if Cable Bahamas improved the quality of service. Respondents felt that Cable Bahamas should improve its service quality before applying for any type of price increase or restructuring of its packages.

“On a similar note, some respondents felt the repackaging changes were not enough to improve their level of satisfaction with Cable Bahamas. In addition, for those who no longer subscribe to Cable Bahamas’ TV services, some stated the repackaging would not make them resubscribe.”

Cable Bahamas, in its reply, said the TV package restructuring would offer consumers more choice and control over what they watch. It added: “We are using our data machinery to be more proactive in addressing network issues before they start to affect consumers.

“Every year, as our network traffic grows, we have a maintenance programme to split our nodes, which lessens the potential for network congestion ensuring customers have a fast, reliable and robust experience.”