The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) chief executive says 7,000 homes will be added to its new fibre technology network by the end of 2021.

Andre Foster, addressing a product launch last week, said: “We’re committed to the fact that we are keeping these communities connected. We’re committed to the fact that we’re going to continue to invest heavily in our communities.

“As we continue to grow that fibre footprint, we expect to have over 7,000 new homes by the end of this year with our new fibre network. So today, if you’re in San Salvador, you can get a fibre-to-the-home service. If you’re in Bimini, you can get a fibre-to-the-home service.

“So we are working very hard to make sure we continue to restore the confidence in the community that BTC is going to take back, within the community, the services that we once provided to everybody.”

Mr Foster previously said he is aiming to have 60 percent of subscribers migrated from BTC’s legacy copper network to its new fibre infrastructure in areas where both have been deployed, with a particular focus on eastern New Providence and its population density.

He estimated that some 45,000-46,000 homes were passed by BTC’s fibre-to-the-home infrastructure at the end of April 2021, and the carrier is presently “adding a couple of thousand per month”.

Mr Foster added: “Last year, we doubled the speeds on our fibre network for our customers to make sure that they got through the pandemic so that they could work from home, they can educate from home, they can also get entertained at home. It was about keeping our people safe.

“A few weeks ago, we then furthered that and we have announced an ‘elevate’ campaign. We have elevated our network experience. So that experience now took the bandwidth, where our minimum bandwidth was 100 megabytes on our fibre product. And we are committed to drive innovation around the foundation of that fibre network.

“So if you had 150 megabytes we doubled your bandwidth to 300 megabytes. If you had 300 megabytes, we gave you 600, and that had no additional cost to you as a consumer. So our upload speeds are up to 100 megabytes on our business package; that’s 100 megabytes upstream. Our competitor doesn’t even offer download speeds as fast today.”

Mr Foster said upload speed was “absolutely critical” for persons in the creative industries and those who engage heavily in social media. “We definitely have the fastest upload speeds married to the fastest download speeds. Our speeds will vary for anywhere from 50 megabytes down to 100 megabytes down, depending on the package that you choose,” said Mr Foster.

“From our perspective, we didn’t do it just for our consumers. We did it for the SMB, our small to medium-sized businesses. They have also benefited from the fact that we’ve done significant infrastructure upgrades around fibre and building a stronger fibre backbone.

“I’m really pleased to say that over the past two years since Dorian we continue to lay hundreds of miles of fibre across, not just in New Providence and Grand Bahama, but even in places like the Exumas, making sure that comes back stronger. Our fibre backbone has been really strengthened over the past few years.”