The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) year-over-year revenue growth slowed to just 1.3 percent year-over-year for the 2022 third quarter even though it remained ahead of prior year comparatives for the first nine months.

The Bahamian carrier’s ultimate parent, Liberty Latin America (LiLAC), unveiling its quarterly and year-to-date results for the nine months to end-September 2022, revealed that BTC’s top-line income grew by less than $1m for the former period when measured against 2021 figures.

Revenues for the three months to end-September were just 1.3 percent higher year-over-year at $48.4m, as opposed to $47.8m in the prior year’s third quarter. For the first nine months, BTC’s revenues are 2.8 percent ahead of 2021 at $144.5m compared to $140.5m in 2021. The year-over-year top line rise is some $4m, with the carrier likely on course to deliver full-year revenue of between $190m and $200m with the busier Christmas and Thanksgiving period ahead.

BTC’s subscriber numbers remained flat yet again during the 2022 third quarter, with an increase of 200 mobile pre-paid customers more than offset by a 400 fall in the more lucrative post-paid segment. This made for a total mobile subscriber decline of 200 as BTC remains locked in fierce competitive battle for market share with its rival, Aliv.

On the fixed-line side, a 100 subscriber increase in Internet customers was outweighed by an 800-strong decrease on fixed-line voice, resulting in a net decrease of 700 fixed-line customers. Total fixed-line customer numbers for BTC was pegged at 5,200.

As a result of this slow, continued attrition and whittling away, BTC’s mobile subscriber base remained flat at 173,000 at end-September 2022. This consists of 141,900 pre-paid and 31,100 post-paid subscribers. On the TV, Internet and fixed-line voice side, it presently has some 72,300 total revenue generating units (RGUs).

These are split into 9,600 TV/video subscribers, 31,600 Internet clients and 31,100 fixed-line voice customers. This compares to 73,00 fixed-line revenue generating units at end-June 2022, split between 31,500 broadband Internet customers and 31,900 fixed-line voice subscribers, with 9,600 video/TV clients making up the balance then.

The figures illustrate the extent of the work that lies ahead for BTC’s newly-appointed chief executive, Sameer Bhatti, who took up his post only in September. He recently told Tribune Business that the carrier will be increasingly relying on a fibre network roll-out that is 70 percent complete to drive revenue growth and market share.

“We’re looking to continue that roll out, and the fact that we’ve announced we’re continuing that roll-out here in the fourth quarter and will do so through 2023,” he said.

“It’s not sufficient to have it in New Providence and have it in Grand Bahama, and to have it in Abaco and Exuma. We want to take it throughout the archipelago.” BTC’s goal is that customers enjoy faster, better-quality broadband Internet and TV services when it completes the transition from its legacy copper infrastructure to fibre-to-the-home.

Mr Bhatti added that Cable Bahamas and Aliv are now following BTC’s lead in embracing fibre-to-the-home network technology. “My perspective is we’re customer first. What are the needs of the customers? How do we super serve those needs?” he added.

“We have more speed right now. We have more value within our fibre offerings as well as our post-paid, and we have every reason for our customers to consider us to switch. So long as we stay on that path it’s good things for the Bahamian people and good things for the company.

“Strategy for revenue growth is about rolling fibre. That’s the future. Think about what we’ve all been through with the core of the pandemic. Internet access is like oxygen to many people in our country, and so we’ve had a bit of a fast forward or pull forward of those experiences,” the BTC chief continued.

“To us, we know that the simultaneous usage within the home, be it for streaming, be it for gaming, be it for video conferencing is only going to increase, and the bandwidth and the low latency that we enable with our fibre is key to enabling those future experiences. If we delight our customers, we meet their needs today and in the future, good things will follow. That said, we are growth-focused on growing the team, growing the network and strengthening management.”