By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is projecting that mobile data demand will “double within the next year”, as it prepares to invest $17 million this financial year to pave the way for its latest cellular technology.

Marlon Johnson, BTC’s sales and marketing vice-president, yesterday confirmed to Tribune Business that the carrier was aiming for a “soft launch” of its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology on New Providence in time for Christmas, with a roll-out across the rest of the Bahamas taking place in early 2014.

LTE is designed to increase download speeds from eight megabits per second (mbps) to up to 100 mbps, enabling BTC customers to access new services such as video calling and the streaming of HD video.

Mr Johnson said LTE’s arrival was intended to accomplish two goals, namely improved mobile data speeds with “higher quality speeds”.

“We wanted to make sure there was consistency and high quality,” he added, while warning Bahamian consumers that they would have to purchase new handheld devices (phones) and SIM cards to exploit BTC’s new LTE technology platform.

Acknowledging that growth in demand for BTC’s mobile data services had “levelled off a bit”, having grown rapidly from a ‘zero base’ when 4G (fourth generation) technology was introduced in late 2011, Mr Johnson indicated the newly-privatised carrier expected LTE to give it new impetus.

“We expect the growth in data to double in the next 12 months, and see growth rates of 10-12 per cent per month in data consumption and utilisation,” he told Tribune Business.

“We expect the growth in data to still be pretty robust. We’ve gone from 3.5 gigabytes at the launch of 4G to over a terabyte - 27 times’ the level of consumption prior to 4G.”

Mr Johnson said other markets where mobile data services had been introduced had seen similar growth in utilisation rates, something that created its own challenges as demand often outstripped capacity on incumbent networks.

“That’s been a blessing and challenge at the same time,” Mr Johnson told Tribune Business of BTC’s mobile date growth rates.

“We’re trying to keep up with capacity levels at the same time, investing quite a bit of money in the network. We’ve earmarked $17 million to spend on mobile upgrades, the implementation of LTE, new cell sites, new technology.

“We’re doing quite a few things to add more capacity and things on the network to keep up with customer demands.”

While BTC would continue to invest in its cellular network going forward, Mr Johnson said the recently-privatised carrier had completed much of the necessary spend on its “core infrastructure”, such as new billing and voice mail systems.

In its 2012 annual report, the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) disclosed that mobile data subscribers increased more than six-fold within one year following the launch of services by BTC.

It added that the Bahamas had gone from ‘the bottom of the pack’ in 2011, with just 18,000 mobile data subscribers, to more than 110,000 by end-2012.

Putting into context just how far the Bahamas had come within one year, URCA said: “In terms of mobile broadband data services, the Bahamas was the only country compared to regions with similar offshore financial centres still without such services, as at the end of 2011.

“This placed the Bahamas far behind our regional neighbours and at the bottom of international rankings.”

And the communications industry regulator added: “The mobile data offerings in the Bahamas at the end of 2011 were limited to General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, and the total number of subscribers was approximately 18,000.

“The launch of mobile broadband services by BTC in 2012 led to immediate and substantial growth in mobile data penetration within its first year, and the number of subscribers at the end of 2012 exceeded 110,000, for a penetration rate of approximately 31 subscribers per 100 population.”

As for BTC’s long-harboured plans to launch a rival TV service to Cable Bahamas, and go head-to-head with its main rival in all three main business categories, Mr Johnson told Tribune Business it would likely make good on this promise “some time next year”.

“We’re still very much in the planning phase and developing the business case,” he added. “Customers are telling us how much they’re looking forward to the launch of a rival service.”

BTC has been granted a 15-year licence to provide LTE mobile data services on the 700 megahertz radio frequency.