ECS 06/2024 - Public Consultation on the Draft Outage Reporting and Mitigation Regulations for the Electronic Communications Sector in The Bahamas

In this document, the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (“URCA”) issues its Statement of Results and Final Decision with respect to URCA’s Public Consultation entitled “Draft Outage Reporting and Mitigation Regulations for the Electronic Communications Sector in The Bahamas” (“Proposed Regulations Regulations”).

URCA published the Consultation Document on 2 October 2023 (“Consultation Document”)1 setting out, inter alia, the following:

• URCA’s objectives and legal framework for the public consultation;

• URCA’s rationale for the implementation of the Proposed Regulations;

• URCA’s review of current outage reporting practices in the Bahamian Electronic Communications

Sector(“ECS”) and URCA’s findings on international best practices on outage reporting and related measures; and

• the Proposed Regulations.

 

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ECS 02/2024 - Statement of Results and Final Decision - Revisions to the Consumer Protection Regulations for the Electronic Communications Sector

The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (‘URCA’) issues this Statement of Results and Final Decision following the public consultation on its proposed revisions to the Consumer Protection Regulations for the Electronic Communications Sector (‘ECS’). URCA published the consultation on 18 September 2023.1 The original deadline for responses was 19 October 2023 however the deadline was extended to 30 October 2023 by request to allow for additional time to respond.

The Consumer Protection Regulations (‘Regulations’) were originally published on 30 December 2013 followed by a revised document referred to as Version 1.0.1 published on 7 February 2014.2 Due to the changes that have occurred in the sector and URCA’s experience with handling consumer complaints since the Regulations were first published, URCA found it necessary to update the Regulations to make them fit for purpose, clarify any ambiguity, and issue new measures in areas where consumers were not protected.

A copy of the full document may be downloaded below: ECS 02/2024 - Statement of Results and Final Decision - Revisions to the Consumer Protection Regulations for the Electronic Communications Sector

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ES 01/2023 Statement of Result and Final Determination - Definition and Interpretation of a Major Outage In Public Electricity Supplier and Authorized Public Electricity Supplier Licenses

URCA issues this Statement of Results and Final Decision further to its Consultation on “Definition and Interpretation of a Major Outage in Public Electricity Supplier and Authorized Public Electricity Supplier Licenses – ES 02/2022” document (“the Consultation Document”) published on 1^st November, 2022,  in exercise of its powers under section 38(c) of the EA. URCA notes that the term major outage is defined in the definitions page of the licenses for a Public Electricity Supplier License (“PESL”) and an Authorized Public Electricity Supplier License (“APESL”) , but that term lacks the specificity necessary to provide guidance to licensees to respond to queries from URCA and within which URCA can provide the necessary regulatory oversight.  Specifically, URCA considers that there is potential ambiguity when interpreting this term consequential to definitional omissions of key elements of the license. To remove this potential ambiguity for the purpose of interpreting what is a major outage, URCA engaged in a consultation procedure to define these terms on 1 November, 2022, received comments from stakeholders on 1 December, 2022 and now issues this SoR. This Statement of Results and Final Decision now sets out URCA’s response to the submissions received during the consultation process and presents URCA’s final decision as it relates to the appropriate definition of a “major outage” as used in the PESL and APESL.

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URCA 05/2021 Statement of Results The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority’s Standard Consultation Procedures

The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority’s Standard Consultation Procedures (“SCP”) is for seeking licensees, stakeholders and interested parties' participation in its decision-making process. The SCP sets out URCA’s policy, guidelines, and procedure for engaging relevant stakeholders in consultation for relevant regulatory and other measures. The SCP contained herein indicated URCA’s current thinking and URCA will therefore update its SCP from time to time to take into account best practices and to reflect developments in best practices relative to public consultations. URCA will therefore update its SCP from time to time to take into account best practices and to reflect developments in best practices relative to public consultations. The full Statement of Results can be found here. 

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URCA 05/2017 Final Decision URCA Consultation Procedure Guidelines

This Statement of Results and Final Decision contains the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority's (URCA) review and final responses to the written submissions received on the “Draft URCA Consultation Procedure Guidelines” URCA 01/2016 (“The Consultation Document”) issued by URCA on October 13, 2016. URCA as the independent regulator and competition authority for the Electronic Communications Sector (ECS) and the Electricity Sector (ES) in The Bahamas issues this Statement of Results and Final Decision pursuant to the Communications Act, 2009 (Comms Act) and the Electricity Act, 2015 (Electricity Act). The Comms Act and the Electricity Act empower URCA to implement the Electronic Communications Sector Policy (ECSP), the National Energy Policy (NEP) and the Electricity Sector Policy (ESP), and in that regard to enforce the provisions of the Comms Act and the Electricity Act, respectively. This Statement of Results and Final Decision are part of the consultative process regarding the procedures which will be utilized by URCA to engage stakeholders in respect of various issues affecting the regulated sectors, licensees and consumers.

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