"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
- George Bernard Shaw
There is nothing more important when living in an archipelagic nation like ours than good communication. That's why mail boats came into being early in the 1800s in order to connect the men and women living in our islands. That's why telephones came to the country in the early 20th century so families could remain connected even though they might decide to live on different islands. That's why we invested in a radio system a little later in the 20th century so that information could be transmitted from end to end of our island chain. As we matured as a nation and entered the 21st century, we had the very reasonable expectation that our ability to communicate would not only improve and expand but would become even more reliable. Apparently, we were misinformed.
Therefore, this week we would like to Consider This... what is the state of telecommunications in The Bahamas since BaTelCo was privatized?
Telecommunications in The Bahamas
International telecommunications began in The Bahamas in 1892 with the connection of the first submarine telegraph cable from Florida to the western part of New Providence in an area that was and still is known as Cable Beach. Then the first manual telephone exchange was installed and on October 5, 1906, the first telephone system opened in Nassau with 150 subscribers; thus, international telegraph communication preceded domestic telephone service by 14 years.
Regulation and control of telephonic services was established under the Colonial-run Telegraph and Telephone Department (later the Telecommunications Department), until the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1966. This act created a state-owned corporation, Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation or BaTelCo, which, until its privatization in 2012 to Cable & Wireless, operated as a monopoly of telephony and related services.
The Telecommunications Act, which became effective on March 25, 2000, repealed the earlier act, paving the way for the privatization of the company.
As of 2012, BTC had approximately 137,000 fixed lines, 141st in the world and approximately 254,000 mobile cellular lines, 176th in the world.
The privatization nightmare
During his second term in office, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced that his government would privatize BaTelCo, ostensibly to move that public corporation to a first-world telecommunications company that would introduce state-of-the-art technology, enhance service quality and hopefully lower prices as a result of the operational efficiencies that a privatized company would provide. In addition, there was a promise of eliminating political interference from the management of BaTelCo, a practice that some suggested had evolved into a "fine art" under the PLP government over its 25 years in office.
It took nearly the next two decades to convert the privatization dream into reality. There were countless missteps and mistakes made by successive administrations en route to privatization. But one thing is irrefutable. Ingraham pointedly and emphatically asserted that he would not even discuss the matter of privatization with Cable & Wireless, a company which had not even submitted a bid to purchase BaTelCo. He probably correctly arrived at that "intransigent" and "irrevocably voiced" position because of the dismal reputation that that company had earned throughout the Caribbean.
It was therefore stunningly surprising when Bahamians learned that Cable & Wireless had been "invited" to propose on the privatization of this national asset. Not only was it invited to submit a bid for our greatest national treasure, it actually won the bid! This move left many Bahamians stunned as to what could possibly have transpired between the government's initial pronouncements and its final position to sell this asset to a foreign company it had initially categorically rejected - and at a price that seemed significantly lower than its intrinsic value suggested.
The vast number of Bahamians believed at the time, and even more so now, that the entire privatization process was misguided, mismanaged and mired in a quagmire of confusion that was not in our best national interest. It is reported that Ingraham made an 11th hour futile attempt to reverse the decision taken by his government to sell a majority interest to foreigners.
The fumbled, failed fiasco of privatizing BTC was birthed out of the vortex of the perennial love affair that we have historically developed for foreign ownership of our important national assets.
The current situation
Today, a privatized BTC has demonstrated that the decision to sell to Cable & Wireless was a national nightmare of epic proportions. Since BTC was sold, we have experienced what can only be described as the worst telephone service in the country's modern history. Land line and cellular calls are frequently dropped, cellular telephone calls customarily fade in and out like a tenuous apparition, depending on where you are on the islands, and the customer is often faced with a complete black-out of services for no apparent reason. Ten days ago, the entire island of New Providence and consumers on the Family Islands had no cellular service whatsoever for most of the day. That failure prompted BTC to print a full-page ad in the dailies, apologizing for "any inconvenience caused". And what have we heard from the regulator, URCA, in all of this? Absolutely zippo! No one is protecting the public interest because of the power of corporate might.
BTC was developed, managed, and financed by Bahamians and, for many years, provided impressive dividends in the millions of dollars to the central government. When we reflect on the tumultuous events caused by foreign managers at BaTelCo back in the 60s and 70s, we are reminded of how hard Bahamians worked to rid the corporation of those managers, making it 100 percent Bahamian. For some unknown reason, it really appears that the Ingraham government, in its decision on privatization, was determined to go backward, with no regard for the competence, ingenuity and business acumen of Bahamians who could have continued to manage BTC under its privatized reincarnation.
Conclusion
It is sad but true that what Bahamians spent decades developing into a modern, state-of-the-art telecommunications company has taken foreigners only a few short years to depreciate, devalue and degrade.
In 2014, our telephone services leave so much to be desired. We should demand more from the regulator and actively petition the government to move with alacrity to introduce more competition into the marketplace, so that the consumer will have a choice and the ability to fire the provider who does not deliver quality, efficient, reliable and reasonably priced service.
We are also concerned, and will closely monitor, the proposed relationship that BTC is slated to develop with the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB) with specific application to television. If BTC's past experience is any indication of things to come, this does not augur well for BCB or Bahamian consumers. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, until we are provided with real and reasonable telephony choices, we must daily endure yet another bungled blunder of the political directorate that has saddled the Bahamian people with the fumbled, failed fiasco of BTC.
o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis & Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

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