The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has today, September 4, 2012, issued for public consultation, its review of Cable Bahamas Limited’s (CBL) application for a permanent price increase for SuperBasic [REVTV Prime] cable television (TV) services. CBL is seeking a 27% increase in the monthly charge, which would mean a per month price increase of $8 for residential consumers and $13.50 for the commercial customer. The current monthly rates of $30 and $50 respectively have not changed since CBL introduced the service in 1995. URCA has planned a public consultation on the application which will include community meetings in…
The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has issued a 700 MHz spectrum license to the Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited (BTC). Issue of a license for the new spectrum bandwidth to Cable Bahamas Limited (CBL) is also expected. This follows a competitive evaluation process initiated this past March 23rd, when URCA issued a Request for Applications (RFA) for the newly opened 700 MHz spectrum band. A total of five applications were received. The 700 MHz band, with frequency ranging from 698 MHz to 806 Mhz, is considered an especially valuable fixed and mobile broadband network resource, given its suitability for…
The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has completed its initial review in its investigation into the Bahamas Telecommunication Company’s (BTC) June 18th and 19th network outage. On July 17, 2012, BTC fulfilled its reporting requirement to URCA, following a one-week extension of the initial deadline that was issued with URCA’s June 22nd launch of the investigation into the outage. The report submitted by BTC, preliminarily points to system failures associated with BTC’s emergency backup power supply for its Technical Complex, following the loss of commercial power on the stated dates. At this stage of the investigation, URCA has requested…
On August 1st, 2012, new Chairman Randol Dorsett took his place at the head of the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) Board. An attorney-at-law, Mr. Dorsett is a Partner in the Nassau Office of Graham Thompson, a leading law firm in The Bahamas. He is a member of the firm's Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group, with a portfolio of responsibilities in commercial practice, including specialty areas of Banking, Labour and Employment, Personal Injury, Fraud, Contentious Real Estate and Trust Litigation. Mr. Dorsett says that the “achievement of the kind of market that provides good product and service options for…
