The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company's (BTC) ultimate parent has "almost been forced to do better" by its chief executive's controversial comments, a trade union leader said yesterday.

Bernard Evans, the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) president, suggested to Tribune Business that the furore sparked by Balan Nair's criticisms of BTC workers' productivity and work ethic had left Liberty Latin America with no choice but to "make up" and deliver on promises of new investment in The Bahamas.

"If they make the improvements they say they're going to make, and deliver on the commitments they've promised to do, we can really be optimistic," Mr Evans said of BTC and the parent that owns just over 49 percent of its equity.

"They're pretty much forced to do better. It's almost like they want to make up and put a better product out here in The Bahamas. All the negative talk, and Mr Nair's apology to the Prime Minister, something like this was needed to ensure there was a refocus back on The Bahamas and give BTC all it deserves."

Tribune Business revealed earlier this week that BTC suffered a $13.6m revenue decline for the 2019 first-half, as its top-line dropped by 11.4 percent year-over-year to $106.1m compared to $119.7m the year before.

The top-line declines appear to have been driven by a further 9,300 net loss of mobile subscribers during the 2019 second quarter, which challenges the optimism expressed by Garfield "Garry" Sinclair, BTC's chief executive, that market share declines were starting to "plateau" in his recent interview with Tribune Business.

However, Mr Evans, the immediate past president of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU), said he anticipated the "levelling of the playing field" amid signs that the "haemorrhaging" of mobile subscribers to Aliv was now slowing.

Data provided by Liberty Latin America showed that a modest gain of 700 post-paid mobile subscribers was more than offset by the loss of another 10,000 pre-paid customers during the three months to end-June 2019, but Mr Evans said the former represented the higher-yielding "market to go after".

He suggested that post-paid subscriber margins were four times' those for pre-paid consumers, who are more of a volume business. Mr Evans said revenues from the latter category, in particular, had declined due to the expansion of Wi-FI and What's App use, and he called on BTC to also focus on its Internet bandwidth and TV product.

"I'm a little closer to the ground, and have some data that shows customer movement and whether BTC's offering a better package than Aliv," he added. "The tide has settled and is beginning to pull back in the original direction of BTC.

"If URCA gave out its information you'd see people going back to BTC, maybe not in droves, but having had experience of Aliv they're realising the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. BTC will remain strong with 200,000-plus subscribers and Aliv will probably not make 200,000."

BTC had some 213,500 mobile subscribers as at June 30, split between 188,000 pre-paid customers and 25,500 post-paid subscribers. BTC's subscriber numbers showed virtually no positive improvement elsewhere. Customer numbers excluding mobile fell by 2,900 during the 2019 second quarter, with TV/video and Internet subscribers declining by 500 apiece and fixed-line telephone customers down by 1,900.

While BTC's infrastructure passes some 128,900 Bahamian homes, it had just 6,100 TV/video and 25,700 Internet customers at end-June 2019. Telephone customers totalled 44,400, bringing BTC's non-mobile revenue generating units to 76,200.