It is axiomatic to suggest that a modern Bahamas requires modern infrastructure. We appreciate the need for a world-class airport in the capital and second city and that many airports in our islands must be updated to be aligned with the increasing travel demands of citizens and visitors.
There is also an urgent need to maintain our docks for inter-island mail boat transportation and we have recently developed a deeper appreciation for the dramatically improved roadworks that were undertaken by the last Ingraham administration.
A similar observation can be made about the country's desperate attempts to make telecommunications keep pace with the ever-increasing demands that are placed on our monopolistic telecommunications network and of the omnipresent and overwhelming daily challenges that are faced by that service provider.
Then there are the growing demands on every island on our similarly monopolistic electricity supplier and our water and sewerage corporation, both of which are displaying noticeable strain as more and more wonder why we are experiencing power cuts in winter and water pressure problems even though we have been told, here in the capital, we no longer require Andros water to meet our needs.
Therefore, this week, we would like to consider this... what is the status of our television system, another important part of daily life in this country, and are we keeping pace or falling behind the increasing demands of the marketplace?
A historical overview
Television came to The Bahamas in the latter half of the 20th century. Before that time, Bahamians on New Providence and the Family Islands received their news and entertainment by radio.
I can clearly remember getting our very first television. We were among the first in the neighborhood to acquire one and I can vividly recall neighbors coming to our home to view this modern marvel, although in those days the picture on the tube regularly faded in and out and often required an adjustment of the set-top antenna. I also recall my father's friends assisting him in mounting an antenna on the roof of our home in order to improve the reception quality. It was always a childhood treat to go to Miami to enjoy "really good reception" and it was not until the advent of satellite dishes that many Bahamians were able to enjoy an enhanced quality and variety of program offerings.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, satellite dishes were popping out of the ground almost as fast as homes were built so their occupants could enjoy the clear reception that dishes afforded. Grand Bahamians could boast of being able to enjoy better TV than those living in the capital because cable TV came to Freeport relatively early in its development.
Then in the 1990s, Cable Bahamas was awarded a long-term monopoly to provide cable TV throughout the entire Bahamas and numerous satellite entrepreneurs who previously sold such systems experienced a rapid, albeit quiet, demise.
The current state
Today, Cable Bahamas dominates television in The Bahamas. It was, for years, the only legal service provider of cable TV and, although the service is generally consistent, its offerings are not extraordinarily vast. Cable subscribers can purchase various packages depending on their tastes and pocket-books. And while Cable's service delivery is generally above average, there are intermittent periods of programming black-outs and signal distortions as manifested by pixels that are disorganized.
Cable Bahamas is also an internet service provider and its service is as good as that offered by the telephone monopoly, BTC. BTC's cellular monopoly ends this month with the award of an additional license to an as-yet-unnamed second cellular company. Cable Bahamas hopes to win the bid to become the first BTC cellular competitor, and the cellular industry here is expected to be completely liberalized by 2017.
The positives
Some persons applaud the program offerings of Cable Bahamas, maintaining that we receive more offerings in The Bahamas than in many hotels in the United States. Program offerings are often duplicated, especially in the higher channel ranges, with one exception: the United States West Coast satellite feed is available, enabling persons in Eastern time zones to view programs that might have been missed earlier.
Complaints against Cable Bahamas
The most prevalent complaints cited against Cable Bahamas concern loss of signal and loss of signal quality. These instances include frequent freezing of the picture, usually during a moment of high drama or suspense, and the aforementioned mysterious breakup of the picture into what can only be described as "dancing pixels".
Reporting these occurrences to a Cable Bahamas customer service representative is another frustrating experience, replete with long waits. Once you have actually reached a live person, who is usually unfailingly polite, the outcome tends to be unfulfilling, as the representative is not well-informed about the duration or cause of the problem, only knowing that it is "being worked on".
Other complaints pertain to program offerings, including many program previews that are presented in either Spanish or Portuguese, which is useless to persons who do not speak those languages. A senior Cable Bahamas executive has explained that this arises because the Caribbean islands receive the Latin American feed, principally because of the small size of the English speaking Caribbean population, 7% of the Latin American market.
In addition, there are some persons, including this author, who wished that Cable Bahamas had not discontinued the broadcast by Al Jazeera, which offered a refreshingly different viewpoint from that of the often prejudiced spin that American networks place on international news.
Unquestionably the most offensive programming insert is the silly, annoyingly irritating music that is inserted along with the weather, currency rates and stock exchange data on CNN and HLN during commercial breaks. The same senior Cable Bahamas executive to whom we referred earlier indicated that the Caribbean Co-operative of Cable Companies has attempted to address some of these concerns, but again, given the "insignificant size of the Caribbean market", we have to take what we are given.
Completing the mission
In a similar way that BTC's original mission at the turn of the 20th Century included connecting The Bahamas by land lines, which for the most part it has successfully accomplished, the original mission of Cable Bahamas at the turn of the 21st Century was to provide cable TV to the entire Bahamas. The important question that must be answered is: Has Cable Bahamas achieved its original mission? Some would argue that it has; others, especially those viewers in some of our more far-flung islands, will take the opposing viewpoint. Nevertheless, the company now wishes to enter the cellular market.
Cable Bahamas' venture into telephony has, from many reports, not gone without problems. Aside from negative feedback regarding the quality of the sound transmission, its main drawback, when compared to the land line service of BTC, is its vulnerability in the event of power failures. While Cable Bahamas says its phone service comes with a backup battery that will give a few hours of service in the event of a power cut, in our hurricane-prone islands, a few hours is not enough time, given the sometimes weeks-long power interruptions the storms sometimes create. Staying connected in times of emergency like during a hurricane, clearly needs to become more of a priority for Cable Bahamas than it currently is.
Conclusion
Before any consideration is given to granting a cellular license to Cable Bahamas, we would urge an examination of whether this company has fulfilled its primary mission of bringing television to all corners of The Bahamas and maintaining that signal in the best working order. As we have seen in many companies over the years, when a primary mission is not fulfilled and diversification into other areas follows, mediocrity sets in, either with the principal product or the new offerings, or both.
Bahamians have every right to demand the best, and any company, when considering branching out, better be prepared to provide the best in all of its products and services, or deal with the consequences.
o Philip C. Galanis is the managing editor of HLB Galanis & Co., Charted Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

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