CEO: BTC must be 'smarter' after URCA fine

Wed, Sep 10th 2014, 12:06 PM

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) must "work smarter" in the future to avoid further penalties from the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), according to Leon Williams, CEO of BTC.
Williams called for change within BTC after announcing that the company had recently been required to pay over $1 million in combined Utilities Appeal Tribunal (UAT) fees and fines to the utilities regulator. Although the UAT fee did not constitute a fine for BTC, Williams acknowledged that the fines and fees had forced BTC to re-evaluate its practices.
"We have to work smarter. We must recognize that there is an authority above and beyond that of the company... There is a regulatory authority in the country [and] the laws have teeth in them.
"When they give you advice and they suggest to you that you modify your behavior, you should modify your behavior. Otherwise there are fines," stated Williams, who became BTC's CEO in June, taking over from Geoff Houston.
Williams confirmed that BTC had recently paid a $244,000 fine for anti-competitive behavior issued against it earlier this year. URCA fined BTC nearly $244,000 in July over complaints of anti-competitive practices made in 2012 by SRG, a subsidiary of Cable Bahamas.
URCA found that BTC had secured exclusive supply agreements with certain wholesale businesses, which prohibited those suppliers from selling SRG calling cards.
"This is an incident that took place almost two years ago, but it suggests that BTC did not modify its behavior, and as such URCA fined BTC for aggravation," said Williams.
"We're also paying the $850,000 UAT fee... So over the last month-and-a-half, we have written some checks in the neighborhood of almost $1 million to URCA," said Williams.
The UAT, established in 2009, is funded by license fees determined by utility operator turnover.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

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