COMMENTARY ON THE STATE OF BTC
The following commentary was submitted in response to the article last week on the state of telecommunications in The Bahamas and in particular the service being provided by BTC. The writer who ahs worked in the telecommunications sector in The Bahamas extensively wishes to remain anonymous. (Editor)
Good day. I’ve been responding to an article on the website http://www.bahamasuncensored.com/the-telephone-service-gets-worse-and-the-company-ignores/ for several weeks. As someone who’s been in the telecommunications industry for most of my career, I’d like to present some perspective on the situation. The issue you described can be attributed to either maintenance or capacity. If it’s a maintenance perspective hopefully BTC’s Bahamian Directors will address. However, if it it’s a capacity issue, then we need to be aware of the following set of circumstances: For international calls, consider the following :
The link below shows the submarine cables that serve the Bahamas. Three main submarine cable networks take traffic out of and into the Bahamas; they are “Bahamas 2”, “ARCOS-“ The Bahamas Internet Cable System.
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Bahamas 2 and ArCOS-1 are owned by BTC and its parent company Liberty Caribbean. Both of these cables are managed by their subsidiary called Liberty Networks https://libertynetworks.com/
Bahamas 2 was an initial joint venture with BTC and AT&T; this was built primarily for voice traffic.
ARCOS started as a consortium that included BTC, but through a series of purchases, is now fully owned and or managed by Liberty Latin America through their subsidiary, Liberty Networks.
In addition
to the Bahamas, ARCOS traverses many Latin American countries that have traffic more than 10x that of the Bahamas. It is easy to understand that ARCOS traffic is groomed to accommodate the larger revenue traffic from Latin American countries.
The Bahamas Internet Cable System (BICS) is owned by Cable Bahamas through a subsidiary called Caribbean Crossings.
These networks were constructed between 1995 and 2005.
These networks are easily carrying more than 50X the initial traffic, especially given the advent of AI in these last three years or so. While there has been some upgrading of the initial optical equipment. The demand continues to increase.
Liberty Latin America is in the process of constructing another cable to Latin America (MANTA); however, this subsea cable construction circumvents the Bahamian archipelago and is not due to be completed for another year.
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Additionally, there is another cable system being constructed called TAM-1. This system travels through the Bahamas; however, any opportunity for direct connectivity is going to be in future phases. Any anticipated relief will only come from the reconfiguration of these existing cable systems after the newer ones are installed.
At an approximate 25-30MUSD cost, the government can make the argument that more connectivity to the US Mainland is required and should be supplied by a third vendor. If that is a consideration, there are many contractors out there to provide competitive offers.
For National Calls, off-island connectivity is dependent on the BDSNi network in BTC and BICS; there is cause to believe that this network needs upgrading.
For Calls within the Island, there are reasons to believe that the intelligence platforms or common equipment to drive network commands may’ve been migrated from the Bahamas, offshore. If this is the case and links are not dedicated to specific functions, then this network is severely compromised. However, is there anyone with the knowledge and know-how at either BTC or the regulator to understand and address comprehensively?
Further, you should be aware that Cable Bahamas is constructing or has constructed submarine cables to private islands in the Exumas. These quasi-permission structures may work in the short term; however, their lack of regulation is unsustainable as a going concern. These local subsea networks should be licensed and regulated.
URCA Regulation
For both local, national, and international voice and internet traffic, the whole management concept of submarine networks in the Bahamas needs to be supported by a regulatory framework that clearly outlines procedures and the quality required.
The ECS within URCA
Regulators in Bermuda have less than 20% of the population of the Bahamas; however, they have as many as 6 subsea cable systems connected to both the US and Europe. Bermuda also has a separate regulatory regime in place for subsea cable systems.
The staff at the URCA’s ECS level needs an enhancement of leadership and advisers with experience in managing and/ or implementing networks. While I know that the legal framework is in place, I’m more than convinced that there is a lack of experiential knowledge at the operational or policy adherence and/ or compliance level. For instance. Both incumbent licensees are required to deliver performance reports every quarter; however, given the number of complaints and issues that continue to be experienced by the consumer, I’m not convinced that the information provided is comprehensive. Consequently, a lack of accountability is the result.
Additionally, I have reason to believe that BTC has migrated a considerable amount of network functions offshore to other islands, I’m guessing Jamaica and Curacao. Specifically. Intelligence platforms like the BTC’s 4G database & VoLTE capabilities. There, is also reason to believe that parts of the prepaid platform are offshore. The BTC/ CWC shareholder agreement and subsequent policy need definition and adherence and compliance.
Going Forward
Have you ever wondered why both Cable Bahamas and BTC seem to be within 10 points of 50% of the subscribers in both wireless and broadband from a capacity and market share perspective? However, Cable Bahamas seems to accomplish both with about 10% of the real estate resources that BTC uses to cover a similar amount of wireline or broadband customers. BTC maintains the older central offices where today’s FTTX technology is out at the edge of the network and uses less central office square feet than in the past. Legacy providers in the US and other regimes today like AT&T and Verizon are converting these older central offices to data centers. The old Sprint network is one example of a completed conversion to data centers.
Data centers facilitate the democratization of Internet access to higher bandwidth users. Providing the framework to allow the emergence of data centers is key to driving costs down, creating local cloud infrastructures, accommodating AI technologies, and reducing latency to accommodate applications like cryptocurrency trading are additional advantages.
The two licensees pay less than 10c per dedicated gigabit of traffic in the US or Europe, they, in turn, resell it to local businesses at 10.00 per dedicated gigabit of traffic. More choice for the Bahamian consumer reduces these high costs.
As mentioned earlier, I have over 30 years’ experience in telecommunications. In the 20 years I spent working for major North American and European equipment manufacturers, I was an integral part of the buildout of 2G, 3 G, and 4G wireless networks in the Bahamas, Antigua, Haiti, Suriname, and Bermuda. I initiated the 4G trials with Cable Bahamas in a proof-of-concept exercise. I was an integral part of an Ericsson team that negotiated a managed services contract for the entire Cable & Wireless cellular and broadband platforms in the Caribbean. I can tell you that at any time that former BTC CEO Leon Williams indicated he was following up with his vendors’ engineers. He was substantially talking to the teams I’ve led, which may have resolved. I can further assure you that since I left the Caribbean region in 2018, there has been no substantive upgrade to BTC’s 4G network.
If URCA is the vehicle to ensure the licensees are held accountable for the required services, then it must be given the resources to be successful.
I do hope that telecommunications services in the Bahamas continue to get better.