On June 10 2013, the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) launched two major initiatives: an information and public awareness campaign in the lead up to the September 3rd implementation of Number Portability, and a public consultation exercise to establish regulations for the protection of consumers in the electronic communications sector (ECS). Number portability or number porting, enables users to keep their current telephone number when switching from one telecommunications service provider to another, which for landlines will become available in The Bahamas on September 3rd, in places where there is more than fixed line telephone services provider. Currently that…
On March 7, 2013, the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) issued a Final Determination and Order to the Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited (BTC) regarding the operator’s network outage on June 18, 2012. The Final Determination upheld URCA’s preliminary finding [release issued January 2, 2013] that BTC breached Condition 27.1.1 (a) of its individual operating licence, by failing to take all reasonably practicable steps to maintain, to the greatest extent possible, the proper and effective functioning of its public telephone network. URCA concluded that “the representations submitted by BTC, when taken at their highest, do not render nugatory URCA’s preliminary…
Following its investigation into the Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited’s (BTC) network outage on June 18th of this year, the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) made a preliminary finding that BTC breached Condition 27.1.1 (a) of its individual operating licence, by failing to take all reasonably practicable steps to maintain, to the greatest extent possible, the proper and effective functioning of its public telephone network. Accordingly, URCA issued a Preliminary Determination and Draft Order to BTC on December 21, 2012. The Preliminary Determination outlines URCA’s investigative findings and the Draft Order prescribes measures to be imposed on BTC, in order…
During The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority’s (URCA) town meeting last evening to discuss Cable Bahamas Limited’s (CBL) application for a price increase in its SuperBasic [REV TV Prime] cable TV package, the issue of a conflict of interest arose when a member of the public questioned the business relationship of URCA Chairman Randol Dorsett with the cable operator. Mr. Dorsett, who is a partner in the law practice of Graham Thompson and Co., has represented Cable Bahamas in legal matters prior to his appointment as Chairman on 1st August 2012. Upon his appointment as URCA’s Chairman, representation of CBL…
