The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is aiming to switch 60 percent of Internet customers to its new network technology by 2023 as it seeks to “reclaim the market leader mantle”.

Andre Foster, the carrier’s newly-appointed chief executive, told Tribune Business the “migration” of the majority of Internet subscribers from its old copper network to fibre-to-the-home infrastructure was critical to regaining market share from a former employer, Cable Bahamas.

Acknowledging that BTC’s recent move to upgrade broadband speeds for all customers is another element in this strategy, he explained: “I would say we’re starting from a pretty healthy penetration with our fibre-to-the-home footprint, but we’re going to be very aggressive. We’d like to see a majority of customer migrate from our copper services to fibre-to-the-home in the next 18 to 24 months.”

This, Mr Foster said, aims to switch “60 percent of subscribers” from BTC’s legacy copper network to its new infrastructure technology in areas where both have been deployed, with a particular focus on eastern New Providence and its population density.

“We’re taking a very positive approach to the migration strategy,” he added. “We’ve done it in Grand Bahama. Everyone in Eight Mile Rock and west of Eight Mile Rock have migrated to fibre-to-the-home, and now we’re focused on out footprint in eastern New Providence to migrate people over.”

Mr Foster said BTC is “pretty fixated” on rolling-out its new network in south-west New Providence, including the Carmichael Road corridor and South Beach, having finished its fibre-to-the-home deployment in communities such as Faith Avenue, Sunshine Park and Flamingo Gardens. It also plans to exploit its cables travelling down Gladstone Road to Coral Harbour.

BTC earlier this week upgraded all its fibre-to-the-home subscribers to a minimum of 100Mbps (megabits per second), and at price points that were described by Mr Foster as offering “an amazing value proposition”.

“We’re offering higher speeds at better price points than anyone on the market,” he asserted. “We’ve blown it out of the water. We could not be more happier about how we are elevating broadband speeds in The Bahamas....

“During this pandemic, the utility most relied upon apart from electricity is broadband Internet. People are moving to open businesses, develop entrepreneurial opportunities, and they need connectivity to open those businesses.”

Mr Foster said some 45,000-46,000 homes were passed by BTC’s fibre-to-the-home infrastructure at end-April 2021, and the carrier is presently “adding a couple of thousand per month”.

“This is not just an investment in big islands, this is an investment across all islands,” he added, pointing to the presence of BTC’s modern network infrastructure in San Salvador and Bimini.  

Pointing to the continued multi-million dollar investment made by BTC’s ultimate parent, Liberty Latin America, in the network roll-out, Mr Foster said the latter was “focused on this market”.

Acknowledging that BTC lags Cable Bahamas in this space, he conceded: “We have not been the broadband leader. I helped them [Cable Bahamas] claim that mantle, and I am looking to reclaim that again.

“I think BTC has always had a competitive advantage. I would argue that BTC is one of the strongest brands in the country. That also puts us squarely on the board for criticism, both pro and con, but I think we always have a competitive advantage because while the competitor is in Nassau and any location where there is a level of return, we’re in Crooked Island and Acklins.

“The only reason the competitor is there is because we were there first, and they are using our network. We’ve always had a competitive advantage.”

BTC suffered a near-nine percent year-over-year revenue decline for the 2021 first quarter despite driving a 2,400 post-paid mobile subscriber rise, with its top-line falling by $4.3m compared to the same period in 2020, declining from $49.3m to $45m.

This was despite BTC “bundling” its products into packages of multiple services in a bid to drive subscriber uptake, while also building on the continued roll-out of its fibre-to-the-home technology.

BTC managed to add a net 1,300 subscribers to its Flow TV and broadband Internet offerings during the 2021 first quarter. Some 600 new TV customers, and 1,400 broadband Internet subscribers, were added during the first three months of the year, although this was partially offset by the loss of 700 customers from its fixed-line telephone platform.

BTC closed the 2021 first quarter with 180,100 mobile subscribers, 8,000 TV customers and 27,800 broadband Internet customers. Excluding mobile users, it had some 69,500 customers, while its fibre-to-the-home technology passed 120,900 residences. Fixed-line telephone customers totalled 33,700.

BTC’s revenues suffered a 12.6 percent year-over-year decline in 2020, dropping by $26.2m from $207.3m in the prior year to $181.1m for the 12 months to end-December, a fall that will largely have been driven by COVID-19 and its devastating impact on consumers.

The carrier’s revenue also fell by $48.1m over a two-year period when the 2020 figures are measured against 2018. That equates to a 21 percent decline.