One of the most contentious issues of 2011 was the government's sale of 51 percent of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) to London-based conglomerate Cable & Wireless Communications.
Although the sale of the telecoms company was on the agenda of both the Ingraham and Christie administrations for more than a decade, the deal was met with fierce resistance from the opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and the two unions representing managers and line staff at BTC.
Detractors compared the sale to the loss of a national treasure, akin to selling off the country's 'birthright'.
Others questioned why the Ingraham administration would sell the majority shares of a profitable company at the 'fire sale price' of just over $200 million, far below what they thought the cash-cow was really worth.
In the months before the deal was finalized, the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU) and the Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union (BCPMU) -- led by Bernard Evans and William Carroll respectively -- organized walk-outs, demonstrations and rallies all in a last ditch effort to convince the government to abandon its plans to sell BTC.
In February, tensions ran high when hundreds of angry demonstrators clashed with police.  They pushed against steel barricades which were set in place to keep the crowd from entering Parliament.
The government accused the opposition of dispatching political operatives to Bay Street to publicly agitate against the deal.
"Several PLP MPs, ratified candidates and senior party officers were active in that demonstration which became extremely unruly," said Senator Dion Foulkes in March.
"If it were not for the fine men and women of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, [more] Bahamians could have been hurt.  One person was hurt."
The PLP vehemently denied the allegations.
On March 24, the House of Assembly approved the sale of BTC.
Twenty-two MPs supported the resolutions and 18 House members voted against it, including then newly independent Bamboo Town MP Branville McCartney.
Although the mood in the House was tense at the time, the atmosphere became lighter after Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham mistakenly voted against the sale.
Ingraham was typing on his cellular phone and seemed distracted when he said 'No' when it was his time to vote.
Noticing his mistake, which drew laughs and shouts from members of the opposition, Ingraham quickly voted 'Yes'.
"This is a historic day in the history of The Bahamas," Ingraham said after the BTC resolution was passed. "It is the culmination of a process that was started 14 years ago."
Days before CWC was set to assume management control of the telecoms monopoly, opposition leader Perry Christie threatened to reverse the deal if his party is returned to power after the next general election.
"We will use all lawful means available to us to ensure that it will not stand," said the PLP leader in early April.
Not long after assuming control of the company, executives at BTC offered voluntary separation packages to employees in a move to reduce bloated staff levels by 30 percent, or 400 workers.
Overall, 602 out of more than 1,100 employees applied for the separation pay.
In July, the first wave of employees -- 162 of them -- left the company voluntarily.  Another group of workers left the company the next month.
Although the new owners of BTC promised customers lower rates and improved services, the biggest immediate change came for roadside phone card vendors.
In July, the new owners adjusted the profit margins of pre-paid phone card vendors who complained that their margins dropped by as much as 77 percent. Some vendors began selling their cards above face value until BTC warned that this was not condoned.
In July, BTC eliminated the charge for inter-island mobile to mobile phone calls and made it easier to call and text other cellular customers when it eliminated the need for users to type in the prefix 242 before dialing or texting.
In September, it was revealed that BTC requested approval from Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority to charge customers 35 cents per call to directory assistance or 916.
BTC later clarified that if the request was approved, charges would not begin until a customer's fourth call to directory assistance in any given month.
BTC launched its 4G network in New Providence in early December.  The new network will bring improvements in voice quality and faster data services on smartphones, company officials have said.
The network was also launched in Grand Bahama with plans for the Family Islands in 2012.

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