The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Cable Bahamas has warned that mandating it expand its Internet and TV infrastructure to all Bahamian islands would impose “enormous costs” on the company, “severely burdening” the entire communications industry and, by extension, the whole national economy.

Responding to the Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority’s (URCA) consultation on the Universal Service Obligations (USO) it planned to impose on itself and the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), the BISX-listed company said the regulator wanted it to both expand network coverage and the provision of services below cost to all “unserved” areas in the Family Islands.

And it added that URCA’s proposals, which applied to all telephone, Internet and television services, were a global first - “unlike any other country in the world’.

Pointing out that its broadband Internet network was present on New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco and Eleuthera, with cable TV also reaching Andros, Bimini, the Berry Islands, Great Exuma, Inagua and Long Island, Cable Bahamas said expanding Internet services to these islands would require it to upgrade all facilities present in those locations.

“Setting aside technical and practical considerations, such a requirement would involve enormous cost and take years to complete. Mandating such a requirement would clearly be contrary to section five of the Communications Act,” Cable Bahamas warned.

It pointed out that in 2009, the BTC privatisation committee rejected the idea of designating Cable Bahamas as a Universal Service Provider (USP) for Internet services because “of the considerable cost and wasteful duplication of facilities involved.

“The Committee specifically stated that: ‘Cable Bahamas would have to make considerable infrastructure investment in remote parts of the Bahamas to fulfil the USO using its own infrastructure.’” Cable Bahamas added.

“Further, the Committee recognised that such investment would be wasteful in view of the fact that BTC already has the infrastructure required to provide basic Internet service to remote areas of The Bahamas.”

Pointing out that wireless technology would be better for meeting URCA’s USO obligations, Cable Bahamas said: “URCA should explore the potential of shared access. Therefore, the access is not defined in terms of individual households.

“This would avoid potential distortion in the Bahamian electronic communications sector and achieve a more cost effective solution for uneconomic areas.

“URCA’s proposal lists specified institutions that should be provided with certain services free of charge, and one such institution is a community centre. The proposed definition of community centre would mean that residents would have access to certain services, and the solution would be seem more reasonable and proportionate.”

And the BISX-listed company added: “Cable Bahamas submits that the implementation of URCA’s USO proposals would not be ‘efficient and proportionate’. Specifically, the implementation of both the service maintenance and network expansion approaches would run the risk of severely burdening the electronic communications sector of the Bahamas.

“The proposed approach would also result in disproportionate and unsustainable costs relative to other sectors of the Bahamian economy, and as compared to other countries with which The Bahamas competes in the global economy.

“Moreover, as noted in the previous sections, the Government’s transitional USO policy was designed to include interim measures, and these measures were completely unprecedented and wholly unrealistic.”