The business community has expressed mixed reviews on the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority's (URCA) decision to deny Cable Bahamas Limited's (CBL) request to increase its monthly subscription rates. Dionisio D'Aguilar, president of Superwash is outraged by URCA's decision and believes it will hurt Cable Bahamas customers. "You cannot realistically expect a company to keep the same price for 19 years and what they're doing is probably forcing Cable Bahamas to make their basic service a little bit more basic," according to D'Aguilar.
"You certainly don't motivate companies to innovate and to expand and improve the service [when] they simply can't make any money anymore," he noted. Cable Bahamas requested a 27 percent increase in the monthly subscription charge for its SuperBasic television package. That translates to an $8 increase for the residential package (RevTV Prime) and a $13.50 increase for the commercial package (RevTV Business Prime) in an application dated December 1, 2011. Following the request, URCA launched a public consultation on the application in September and held a series of town hall meetings on New Providence, Grand Bahama, Long Island and Abaco.
However, D'Aguilar called the consultation process "flawed, stupid and a complete waste of time". "If you ask any individual do you want your utilities to go up, 100 percent of them will say no," he said. "You can't expect the public consultation to be sensible. Can you imagine if I went to the public and said do you mind if Superwash increases its prices? Everybody would say no. It's such a stupid and flawed process." Meanwhile, businessman Ethric Bowe and Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Darron Cash commended URCA. "For me, it's a good thing that Cable Bahamas' application was denied. In this environment, the Bahamian people can't afford any more burdens.
We gave them a wonderful opportunity, Cable and all of its shareholders have benefitted highly from the monopoly. Everybody has gotten rich off of the Bahamian people," according to Bowe. Cash said he believes Cable Bahamas' "arrogance" needs to be put in check. "They have consistently been tone deaf to the pleas of their most needy customers, in addition to demonstrating willful ignorance to the concerns of every other customer group," Cash said in a statement. "They have been allowed to get away with too much for too long and must now get accustomed to the fact that there is a new sheriff in town.
"Regrettably, the company describes as, "fifteen months of nonsense" the fact that they actually had to sit and listen to consumers talk about the abuse and neglect they have suffered over many years. "That type of customer feedback is precisely what the Free National Movement anticipated when URCA was established." Cash also suggested that Cable Bahamas do nothing further to "punish the subscribers to their already weak basic package." Both men weighed in the day after URCA announced its decision on Monday. The cable provider plans to challenge that decision.
"We will explore all possible legal and regulatory avenues to have URCA's decision challenged," according to a statement issued by the company late Monday afternoon. The company also said the entire process with URCA has been "extremely frustrating, despite compelling evidence from Cable Bahamas that the rate increase was below the cumulative rate of inflation". "Cable Bahamas believes that its application was put forward a complete and a credible case," the statement read. "In fact, URCA confirmed in the September consultation that there were no anti-competitive concerns, that the financial analysis stacked up, and that our benchmarking analysis supported the application. "We submitted our application in accordance with the Retail Pricing Regulations promulgated by URCA pursuant to the Communications Act and URCA accepts that the application satisfies the required guidelines. "However, URCA has decided to embark on a 'frolic of its own' and introduce additional requirements for a price increase." Cable Bahamas said it believes there is a need to have a body to supervise URCA's discretion.
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