Government to Privatise Bahamas Telecommunications Company

The government of The Bahamas has announced plans to sell a 51% stake, including operational control in The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC). The company currently provides services to over 334,000 wireless (through its GSM and CDMA networks), 132,000 fixed line and 18,500 broadband customers throughout The Bahamas.

Given the importance of the telecommunications industry to The Bahamas and its economy, the Government says that it is seeking a strategic partner in BTC.

Interested parties are invited to register for the privatization process of BTC through the submission of a registration form (the "Registration Form") and the payment of a processing fee of US$25,000 (the "Registration Fee") on or before 15:00 hours (EST) on July 28, 2009. The Registration Form and guidelines on the submission of the Registration Form are available at: http://www.btcprivatization.com/.

In related news, BTC has completed the first phase of its IP network migration, using Sonus Networks supplied hardware. This first phase of the full CLASS Four and CLASS Five migration project underway with Sonus routes all of BTC's international traffic through an efficient and cost effective Sonus IP core.

The migration has allowed for all international traffic to be directed and managed across the new IP core. This reduces the cost and complexity of the deployment and network operating overheads.

A geo-redundant site location has been established in Miami, Florida to address the provisioning and switching for the entire network in the event of an emergency. The Miami site will also terminate traffic to United States-based carriers, which allows better access to cost competitive North American wholesalers.

According to figures from the Mobile World, BTC, the monopoly operator in the country ended Q1 '09 with an estimated 382,000 subscribers. This represents a population penetration level of 124%.

Posted to the site on 14th July 2009