Section 116 of the Communications Act 2009 (the “Comms Act”) sets out presumptions of Significant Market Power (SMP) for Bahamas Telecommunications Company (“BTC”) and Cable Bahamas Limited (“CBL”) for two high level markets respectively and imposes a duty on URCA to determine which specific, if any, ex ante obligations should be imposed on these two operators. The obligations are to be “designed to maintain … the objective of encouraging, promoting and enforcing sustainable competition”. The consultation process on this matter started at the end of September 2009 with the publication of Preliminary Determinations and accompanying guidelines. Since then there have…
The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) publishes its Public Register of all individual licensees, including named licensees and relevant subsidiary undertakings and all registered class licensees. The Public Register is in electronic form however, URCA will maintain hard copies of its Public Register at its principal office for inspection by the public on request during normal business hours without charge. URCA will also maintain hard copies of Individual Licences and Class Licences Requiring Registration at its principal office for inspection by the public on request during normal business hours without charge. Where any member of the public requires or…
URCA today publishes a Position Paper on Types of Obligations on BTC and CBL under Section 116(3) of the Communications Act. The purpose of the Paper is to set out URCA’s current thinking on the types of obligations, and the reasons for possible changes to the Preliminary Determination issued in September 2009. This document is not a statement of results. It does not discuss all submissions and data received in detail, nor does it repeat the original analysis unless necessary: readers of this document should refer to the Preliminary Determinations and Draft Orders (which may be downloaded from URCA’s website…
In fulfillment of its commitment to publish a series of comprehensive Guidelines on the application of the competition provisions set out in Part XI of the Communications Act, URCA has today published the remainder of its Competition Guidelines in one document as ECS COMP. 4 to ECS COMP. 9. This document covers the following subjects: Who is covered by the competition provisions? The concept of “undertaking” (ECS COMP.4.) Market definition – its role in competition law (ECS COMP.5.) Anticompetitive agreements – substantive guidance (ECS COMP.6.) Abuse of a dominant position – substantive guidance (ECS COMP.7.) Guidance on the level of…
