By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) yesterday charged that this nation’s joint last ranking on mobile Internet penetration was based on “dated” data, telling Tribune Business it had enjoyed 50 per cent subscriber growth to 30,000 mobile broadband clients over the last year.

Marlon Johnson, BTC’s vice-president of branding and marketing, said the company - and market - were “at the point where trends are starting to take-off” on mobile broadband usage, and he expected the Bahamas to “rise up” the rankings of future Broadband Commission reports.

The Commission’s ‘The State of Broadband 2012: Achieving Digital Inclusion for All’ gave a series of mixed ratings for the Bahamas, but the most concerning was this nation ranking 167th out of 177 nations for mobile broadband penetration per 100 inhabitants.

The report, based on 2011 data, showed the Bahamas as having zero mobile Internet penetration, placing it below regional rivals such as Jamaica, and ‘notable economic powerhouses’ such as The Congo and Mauritania.

Mr Johnson, though, suggested that the report had failed to account for more recent developments in the Bahamas, particularly since BTC’s privatisation and Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) assuming 51 per cent majority ownership.

He told Tribune Business that “more than 10 per cent” of BTC’s active mobile/cellular subscriber base were using mobile data, which had increased by 400 per cent over the last 12 months.

And Mr Johnson noted that “tremendous growth potential” remained in the fixed Internet broadband market, estimating that just 50 per cent of Bahamian homes had access to this product.

This meant, he said, that between 60,000-70,000 Bahamian households did not have fixed broadband Internet access at home, and BTC believed 30-40 per cent of those would take the product if price point and package were correct.

The Bahamas fared much better in the State of Broadband report when it came to fixed Internet penetration, finishing in the top half in 84th spot with 4.5 subscriptions per 100 persons.

And, backing Mr Johnson’s contention that there was significant pent-up demand for broadband Internet in the Bahamas, this nation ranked 41st when it came to usage, with 65 per cent of Bahamians using the Internet in 2011.

The Broadband Commission seems a relatively credible body, having been established by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Responding to the report’s extremely low mobile data penetration finding on the Bahamas, Mr Johnson told Tribune Business: “I don’t know which data they got that from, but we have 30,000 mobile broadband subscribers today.

“All the people that have Blackberrys, iphones and Android phones, we’ve over 30,000 subscribers. I think the information may be dated. Certainly, we feel confident we’re on the right track.

“More than 10 per cent of our active mobile subscriber base use mobile data, and if you look at how its grown, we had 20,000 subscribers 12 months ago, so there’s been 50 per cent growth” in the past year.

When it came to mobile broadband data volumes, Mr Johnson said these had grown 400 per cent over the last 12 months, something he attributed to the build-out of BTC’s 4G network and improved speeds.

“We’re at the point where trends are starting to take off,” Mr Johnson told Tribune Business. “We’ve seen 400 per cent growth in volumes and 50 per cent growth in subscribers.

“Twelve months ago, 3-5 per cent of our sales were smart phones, and that number is now up to half. We’re definitely trending in the right direction, and are excited about where the numbers are going. We’re bullish.”

With BTC’s 4G network set for build-out completion in November 2012, and its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology set to be introduced in the 2013 first quarter, Mr Johnson said BTC expected only continued growth in its mobile data numbers.

CWC has made mobile data a cornerstone of its, and BTC’s, business, and Mr Johnson said of the Broadband Commission’s report: “We’ll be coming up that ranking.”

He added that the Bahamas would be one of the first Caribbean nations to introduce LTE, and said: “That brings a whole new dimension to data connectivity and data speed, and that will catapult us pretty far in the region and the rest of the world.”

As for fixed broadband Internet, Mr Johnson told Tribune Business: “The other positive trend for broadband usage is that household penetration is relatively low, and there is still a lot of growth potential for residential households and businesses.

“There’s a significant percentage of the marketplace still without. About half our households had broadband data, from the last assessments, as far as residential homes, so we believe there are 60,000-70,000 households that don’t have it, so there’s tremendous growth potential in that marketplace as well.

“Of those households, we think there’s another 30-40 per cent of those remaining that would be interested if they have the right package offered to them.”

Given that “any prudent telecoms operator” knew mobile broadband/data was the dominant global trend, Mr Johnson said BTC had made investing $60 million-plus in the island-wide roll-out of its Next Generation Network (NGN) “a very high priority”.

The NGN network will provide fixed broadband connectivity for Bahamian homes and businesses, while the 4G network and LTE technology will serve mobile data needs.

“One of the key things to point out with the 4G network is that the Bahamas will be one of the few countries in the Western Hemisphere, maybe the world, to have nationwide 4G coverage,” Mr Johnson told Tribune Business.

“We’ll be able to say, by the time we get to November, that all the major islands and population centres will have 4G coverage. We’ll be one of the few nations to have full 4G coverage.”

BTC had started work on its 4G network build-out in September 2011, and had seen voice traffic as well as data “pick up tremendously”.

Mr Johnson, though, conceded that there were “pockets” in New Providence, Freeport and Grand Bahama where BTC was installing extra network capacity over the next several months.

He explained that customer demand in these areas had exceeded BTC’s highest growth projections, reflecting the “pent up demand”.