The Tribune

By CELESTE NIXON

Tribune Staff Reporter

cnixon@tribunemedia.net

TELECOMMUNICATIONS services in the Bahamas will be on par or better than the United States in two to three months, BTC CEO Geoff Houston promised yesterday. 

Speaking at a Rotary Club of Nassau Sunrise meeting, Mr Houston said the new mobile service infrastructure that BTC has been installing should be completed over the next few months, which will make services more efficient and reliable.

“I am very, very confident that over the next two or three months as we settle down all the new platforms and optimise the network that we have put in that the experience you get in the Bahamas will be on par, if not better, than what you get in North America.

“We got through a lot of new things, we have got the 4G challenge, we are ripping out all the old 2G infrastructure and putting in a new 4G network. We got into Grand Bahama, we got into New Providence, Abaco and Exuma and expect to complete the whole of the Bahamas by the end of September.”

Mr Houston said the corporation inherited a business that had a lot of obsolete platforms, including the pre-paid billing platforms, texting platform, and voice mail which were all replaced in June.

“The market in the Bahamas has been held back for whatever reason, but primarily because of a lack of functionality and capability in the basic network infrastructure and we are getting into that,” he said.

With 30-35 per cent of customers now buying smart phones and data usage increasing by 400 per cent the demand for a faster more reliable network is high.

As BTC performs upgrades to the system, customers have experienced disruption, particularly last month. Mr Houston said. He explained these disruptions are expected when you are transforming a network while it is still in use.  

“It is like trying to conduct open heart surgery while the patient is still walking around,” he said.

Since the majority sale of BTC to Cable and Wireless some 15 months ago, Mr Houston said the corporation has come a long way, not only upgrading their platforms but BTC has also reduced prices, fixed inter-island dialing issues, eliminated inter-island surcharge on mobile phones, reduced data prices up to 25 per cent, and reduced post paid packages from 15 to 25 per cent in the month of June.

Looking to the future, he said BTC will be introducing additional flagship stores, looking at the next generation of 4G, providing infrastructure for broadband and looking at a TV product.