The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

CABLE Bahamas has confirmed that the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) cannot regulate its services in Freeport, technically enabling it do whatever it wants with pricing and services in the nation’s second city.

Backing Tribune Business’s article last Friday, David Burrows, Cable Bahamas’ head of marketing, said URCA had “no jurisdiction” to approve a 27 per cent increase in the price of its SuperBasic cable TV product, or regulate any aspect of its Cable Freeport subsidiary’s operations.

But, while Cable Freeport could technically “raise its rates right now”, Mr Burrows said it would not do so. Cable Bahamas’ Freeport subsidiary would fall into line with whatever URCA’s decision was, and offer exactly the same prices and services as its parent, because to do otherwise was “too complicated”.

Tribune Business reported on Friday how at least one submission to URCA’s consultation on Cable Bahamas’ application for an $8 increase in SuperBasic’s monthly price had queried whether the regulator could approve such a rise in Freeport.

This was because a 2011 Supreme Court ruling had found that URCA’s predecessor, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), had no right to levy fees on Cable Freeport’s Internet revenues. This was due to Cable Freeport being licensed by the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), not the PUC. And, with the GBPA being the regulatory authority for utilities and communications in the 230 square mile Port area, URCA has no regulatory authority over it.

Conceding that he and Cable Bahamas had not considered this issue in relation to the SuperBasic application, Mr Burrows indicated that legal opinion backed the submission to URCA’s consultation - that the regulator has no such authority to approve/reject an increase in Freeport.

“URCA doesn’t have any jurisdiction over what happens in Freeport,” Mr Burrows told Tribune Business. “The price of our services is not regulated in Freeport. As I understand it, as of today, URCA would not have any regulatory authority over Cable Freeport. It is not under URCA.

“We have the right to raise our rates right now, but the way it works does not apply for different jurisdictions.”

While Cable Freeport could raise its prices without having to seek any regulatory approval, Mr Burrows told Tribune Business this would not happen. He explained that its prices and services would continue in line with those of its parent, as it was difficult to offer different packages to different islands in a nation with the Bahamas’ 350,000 population.

“It would complicate things too much. It would complicate marketing, it would complicate communications, it would complicate everything,” Mr Burrows said of any effort to segment prices and services in Freeport from those nationwide.

“We really want to have our services as stated from one place to the other. It would create too much confusion. There are so many different implications when you try to do that in a country the size of the Bahamas.”

He added that operators such as Xfinity were able to split their market, offering monthly prices ranging from $58.99 to $68.99 in different US states, but these territories had larger populations than the Bahamas.

Meanwhile, Mr Burrows also rejected the notion that Cable Bahamas was giving URCA a chance to open the 2011 case by effectively submitting its Freeport subsidiary to the regulator’s jurisdiction over the SuperBasic increase.