The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) yesterday confirmed it has seen an increase in broadband Internet subscriptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Garfield “Garry” Sinclair, BTC’s chief executive, told Tribune Business in an e-mail: “The demand for services has been steady. In anticipation of our customers needing more broadband capacity, we installed a new 10GB (gigabyte) data link to boost capacity for all customers in our fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) footprint at no additional cost.”

He added that this “makes it easier for students to have access to educational content, and attend classes, and for parents to work from home”. The BTC chief continued: “We have seen an uptick in broadband subscriptions over the last two weeks, and our technicians continue to perform installs as well as assist with self-installs.

“Additionally, BTC provided double data for all post-paid and B2B (business-to-business) customers. Pre-paid customers are also enjoying double data on the seven-day Always On plan, the ten and 30-day combination plans. We are monitoring network utilisation closely, and have more than adequate capacity to satisfy the demand we’re seeing.”

Mr Sinclair said of BTC’s virtual store launch on March 23: “The public quickly embraced our virtual store concept, and we’ve received a number of e-mails from customers thanking us for developing this solution.”