The government is in no rush to bring another telecommunications provider into the market despite recent talks with Digicel, according to a leading businessman. Dionisio D'Aguilar, owner of Superwash and a key shareholder in Cable Bahamas Limited (CBL), felt that Prime Minister Perry Christie's discussions with the company were "not surprising". Everybody had the impression they would try to enter the Bahamian market, he explained, in the lead up to the mobile sector's liberalization in 2014. But in his view, the government is more interested in just talking, rather than taking any big steps anytime soon.
"I don't know the exact process, but I doubt this administration will let it happen," he told Guardian Business. "We'll talk about this for years. I don't think the government is very committed to the process. I get the impression that they like Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) as a monopoly. I don't think they're in any rush to deal with this." Noting that the Christie administration "likes monopolies", the chairman of AML Foods has nevertheless remained a strong supporter of competition to elevate services and reduce prices.
CBL, a BISX-listed company with its own ambitions in the mobile phone sector, has made its intentions known in terms of pursuing a license to enter the market. Indeed, competition is creeping into all aspects of the communications industry, including CBL's push to capture up to 50 percent of BTC's fixed-line market share by the end of next year. In turn, BTC will pursue its own TV product in 2013, according to executives. But no area in this sector is more contentious than mobile phone services. D'Aguilar said the government's strides to take back two percent of BTC, after the previous administration sold a 51 percent stake to Cable and Wireless Communications in 2011, could be an indication that Christie is attempting to gain control of essential infrastructure.
That infrastructure could be crucial to any mobile services provider entering the market, allowing the government to possibly rent this existing framework and generate additional revenue. When asked whether the market could sustain three mobile service carriers, such as BTC, Digicel and CBL, D'Aguilar felt the market would have to determine that. "Who would have thought 25 years ago we could have 12 radio stations?" he asked. "But we have them." Christie reportedly met with former Jamaican Prime Minster P.J. Patterson, a Digicel representative, in his office yesterday afternoon. It was the first official meeting between the two sides.
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