The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Cable Bahamas has effectively confirmed it will bid on this nation’s second cellular licence whenever the auction process begins, its $350 million network investment making it “uniquely positioned to offer first class mobile services to the Bahamian people”.

Speaking after one of its potential rivals, IP Solutions International (IPSI), announced the strengthening of its competitive position through selling a majority equity stake to a foreign operator, Cable Bahamas’ chief executive said the company “strongly believed” that this nation needed to complete communications industry liberalisation.

Anthony Butler, who is also the BISX-listed operator’s president, told Tribune Business that it was “waiting in anticipation” of the Government’s announcement on how the bidding process for the second cellular licence would work.

“Adding mobile phone services to our existing platform and product line-up will allow us to continue to leverage best in class expertise in product that is locally owned and operated,” Mr Butler told Tribune Business.

“We believe that we’re uniquely positioned to offer affordable, first class mobile communication services to the people of the Bahamas, and are looking forward to having the opportunity to do so.”

Making what sounded like an initial ‘sales pitch’, Mr Butler pointed out that BISX-listed Cable Bahamas was 100 per cent owned by Bahamian shareholders.

Noting that the company employed around 500 persons in this nation, some 99 per cent of whom were Bahamian, he said Cable Bahamas would expand its existing workforce - at a time when this nation is enduring a “challenging jobs market” - should it successfully win the cellular licence bid.

Mr Butler told Tribune Business that Cable Bahamas had invested $350 million in developing its network infrastructure to-date, and continued to pump in multi-million dollar sums annually.

“We are leveraging off a fibre-rich network, and are bringing real competition in areas in which we are licensed to operate,” Mr Butler told Tribune Business.

“We strongly believe the telecommunications liberalisation policy of the Government of the Bahamas, which commenced over a decade ago, needs to be completed as outlined in the sector policy.

“We’ll wait in anticipation for a government announcement. It has been demonstrated consistently that when there is competition in telecommunications services, the consumer is the ultimate winner.”

Obtaining a cellular licence is the last major ‘upside opportunity’ in the Bahamian communications market for Cable Bahamas, which is already a ‘Triple Play’ provider via its cable TV, Internet and fixed-line voice services offering.

Winning the battle for the second cellular licence would thus make Cable Bahamas a ‘quadruple play’ provider, and effectively cement the Bahamian communications market as a duopoly, divided between itself and the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).

Cable Bahamas, though, will not have everything its own way, as the potential players for the second cellular licence are already beginning to gather and position themselves.

Digicel, the dominant Caribbean-wide cellular provider specialist, has confirmed its long-held intention to enter the Bahamian market by snatching a mobile licence, and other players will likely include UK providers, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.

And the Limitless Mobile acquisition of a majority stake in IPSI, an existing Bahamas-based communications provider, is also designed to position the business to compete for a second cellular licence.

Edison Sumner, IP Solutions International’s (IPSI) chief executive, told Tribune Business yesterday that the acquisition by Limitless Mobile, which has mobile phone operations in five European countries, would leave it perfectly positioned to bid on the second Bahamian cellular licence.

Limitless owns and operates a mobile network in the USA, which is currently being upgraded to 4G/LTE standards. In Europe, it owns and operates a mobile network in the UK, Germany, Denmark, Poland and Sweden.

Mr Sumner said the Limitless deal was timed to coincide with cellular market liberalisation, and its planned Bahamas roll out also potentially includes mobile data and voice services.

“We are anxiously waiting to see what method the Government uses to select the next mobile operator,” Mr Sumner told Tribune Business. “We now believe we have the resources to make that happen.

“I think this puts us in a very good position, better than we would have been before the deal. We do have a strong Bahamian presence through the existing shareholders, and this is an opportunity we were waiting for, to tap into these kind of resources.

“Now we have them, there is no telling how far we can go, and being in position for the next mobile licence is a real possibility for us. We are not retreating. We are looking to push this to the next phase.”

The Government has yet to provide details on how the bidding for a second cellular licence will be conducted. The Prime Minister’s Office has responsibility for the matter, and could adopt a number of different approaches, including an open ‘beauty contest’ auction process.

Stephen Bereaux, director of policy and regulation at the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business. URCA will facilitate the process, which Mr Bereaux said was a matter for the Government.