The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

CABLE Bahamas is putting together the “final piece” in its $89 million acquisitions of three Florida-based telecommunications providers, a senior executive telling Tribune Business that the deals now only await approval by the Bahamian government.

Anthony Butler, Cable Bahamas’ president and chief executive, told Tribune Business that the company’s proposed purchases of south-Florida based Marco Island Cable and NuVu, plus Orlando-headquartered Summit Broadband and infrastructure provider, Metropolitan Telecom, were still under government review.

“That’s still being processed by the Government at the moment,” he said. “All our approvals have been granted in the US. We are at the final piece at the moment, so we’re just waiting for the Government to finish the review. The financing and everything else is in place,” said Mr Butler.

“We are very hopeful it will be completed in the very near future. We’re working well with the Government. For a Bahamian publicly-traded company this is a fantastic move for all the stakeholders; the shareholders as well as the employees of this company.

“We have demonstrated that the level of technology and progress available here is actually significantly higher than some of the targets we are looking at in the United States. We are taking out technology to them. The levels of service we have got here far outweigh what’s being offered in those communities and that’s why it’s such a big opportunity for us.”

When the deals close, Cable Bahamas will enter a market with 18 million persons compared to this nation’s 350,000.

Mr Butler told Tribune Business that the Bahamas’ communications sector policy has to be ‘dynamic’ and ‘flexible’ due to the nature of the industry. “We would like to see a policy that encourages the operators to look into technology and to encourage the operator to provide the level of service the Bahamas needs,” he added.

“With The Bahamas being an archipelago, it’s extremely important that we have the ability not just to communicate internationally but also in the archipelago