The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

and NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Just three bidders submitted completed offers for the Bahamas’ second cellular licence by yesterday’s deadline, with two locally-based companies who had previously advertised their interest electing not to participate.

The Cellular Liberalisation Task Force, in a statement issued last night, said that while nine groups obtained the Request for Proposal (RFP) document, just three came through with completed bids by 2pm yesterday.

The three contenders, one of whom will likely end the Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) monopoly and be its first mobile competitor before year’s end, are Digicel (Bahamas) Holdings Ltd; BISX-listed Cable Bahamas; and Virgin Mobile Bahamas.

However, two companies that had previously advertised their intention to bid on the Bahamas’ second cellular licence - Limitless Mobile (the former IP Solutions International) and Junkanoo Mobile - were conspicuous by their absence, having failed to follow through with an offer.

Edison Sumner, Limitless Mobile (Bahamas) chief executive, confirmed to Tribune Business last night that the company had decided not to bid on the second cellular licence because it wanted to focus on “other opportunities” in the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

Declining to go into details, he said: “We made a decision as a company and as a Board that we would not be submitting for this round because we had identified some other opportunities, both locally and regionally, that we wanted to pay attention to.”

However, Mr Sumner said Limitless retained “an interest in this process”, but said it was from “a different perspective”.

“There is still interest in this mobile sector, interest in this second round of licensing, but we will decide those details at some point in the future,” he told Tribune Business.

“We are looking at other opportunities for low hanging fruit, both nationally and internationally, but we still expect to have some level of participation [in this mobile liberalisation process].”

Junkanoo Mobile, which billed itself as a fully Bahamian-owned group, with Franklyn Winder as its spokesperson, also failed to submit a formal bid.

Its reasons for doing so were unknown last night, although there was unconfirmed speculation last night that Junkanoo Mobile may have formed a joint venture/consortium with one of the other groups.

The three offers submitted, which are all likely to meet the technical and financial criteria and pass on to the ‘spectrum auction’ round, are no surprise as all had flagged their interest previously.

Digicel, the regional and international cellular giant that is owned by Irishman Denis O’Brien, appears to have overcome any reticence over the Government’s requirement that Bahamians majority own 51 per cent of the second cellular operator.

It normally retains its tight, privately-held ownership structure, but has long coveted the Bahamian market - the only Caribbean territory it has been kept out of, via BTC’s monopoly.

Virgin Mobile, too, has long served notice of its interest in the Bahamian cellular market. It has a presence in markets such as the US, Chile and Colombia, and is part of the Virgin Group, headed and owned by world-renowned entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson.

Cable Bahamas, in a statement issued last night, said it was confident that its bid would meet all the Government’s requirements that were listed in the tender document.

“We have really pulled out all the stops for this submission,” said Anthony Butler, its president and chief executive, “staking our claim to become the Bahamas’ first company to offer an alternative in the market.”

The BISX-listed communications provider added that it had “demonstrated its ability to go beyond” the tender document requirements to satisfy Bahamian market demands.

“We understand and respect this process,” said Mr Butler, “and have concentrated very diligently on satisfying all requirements.”

“We want the public to have the full knowledge to make the right decisions for the way forward in the Bahamas,” added Cable Bahamas’ vice-president of marketing, David Burrows.

“Openness and transparency is the right approach and we want to play our part in getting the information out there.”

Meanwhile, Dr Hubert Minnis, the Opposition leader, said the Christie administration should back up its talk about empowering Bahamians via cellular liberalisation by following through on plans left by the previous administration to sell a 9 per cent BTC stake via an initial public offering (IPO) to the Bahamian people.

Although the Christie administration had cancelled such plans, it has indicated that it will revisit the issue after a second cellular license is issued. Dr Minnis charged, however, that there was no need to wait that long.

“The Prime Minister should have made some statement about what will happen to the 9 per cent left at BTC for Bahamians. When will he allow the 9 per cent to be given or sold the Bahamian people. That is Bahamian ownership or empowerment. We don’t want to hear him continually talk about it,” said Dr Minnis.

“He can do something today as opposed to the liberalisation of other cellular companies. He can release the 9 per cent that the FNM had left with BTC that’s generating a profit, so that Bahamians would own 9 per cent and can commence owning and increasing their revenue stream themselves.”

Giving an update on the cellular liberalisation process yesterday during his mid-year 2014-2015 Budget statement, Mr Christie said: “As the Minister with responsibility for the electronic communications sector, I am pleased to confirm that the deadline for submission of proposals in response to the RFP is being met on schedule (yesterday.

“The selection process will consist of two phases. Receipt of the bids later today begins the first phase of the process in which a duly appointed Evaluation Committee will conduct a technical and financial assessment of the proposals submitted.

“Only those Applicants that are deemed to be suitably qualified in Phase I will progress to Phase II, in which an auction of the cellular mobile spectrum will be administered by URCA on Government’s behalf. The successful applicant will be the one with the highest combined score of the scores derived in Phase I and Phase II.”