The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Cable Bahamas yesterday revealed it plans to "step up" its targeting of large-scale corporate and government clients with custom-made communications technology solutions.

Franklyn Butler, the BISX-listed communications provider's chief executive, told Tribune Business that it had made a "significant" investment in building up sales and other teams in an area where it is already "ramping up" to again battle the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).

Revealing that "a fair amount of capital expenditure has been allocated to this area" by Cable Bahamas, Mr Butler declined to give numbers but said the group planned to build-off 25 years of organic growth in the "enterprise" segment - and the tie-up with Aliv - to offer complete solutions to clients in both the public and private sector.

"We're focused on being a solutions provider on the enterprise side," he disclosed. "We will help people to navigate the solutions they need. They know the product they need, but they don't know how to get there. Our job is to get them there.

"It's happening now. The investment has been made. With the right people in the right place, partnering with government and corporate business, you will see a step up in the delivery of solutions for both those segments."

Elsewhere, Mr Butler said customer interest in Aliv, the mobile operator where Cable Bahamas holds a 48.25 percent stake, together with Board and management control, had increased as a result of its network performance and resiliency during Hurricane Dorian.

He added that Aliv's network had "performed tremendously well relative to others" during Dorian, and added that both the mobile operator and Cable Bahamas had restored services in areas possessing electricity in both Grand Bahama and Abaco.

The Cable Bahamas chief said its services had now been fully restored between Winding Bay and South Abaco, and that its staff were present in both Marsh Harbour and the Abaco cays to offer technical support and solutions - including wireless - for any business trying to restore and rebuild in the Category Five storm's aftermath.

Declining to place a figure on Cable Bahamas' repair and restoration costs, Mr Butler added: "If you think about Grand Bahama and Abaco from a subscriber perspective, it's somewhere between 15-20 percent of our business.

"Inevitably there's going to be some impact to our revenue numbers going forward, but we're doing all we can to see how we can rebuild and help those islands get back to some degree of normalcy as quickly and efficiently as we can."