By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE “government’s hands were tied” essentially until 2015 regarding any possible liberalisation of the telecommunications sector following the Ingraham administration’s deal to sell the majority stake in BTC, Prime Minister Perry Christie revealed yesterday.

Mr Christie told the House of Assembly it was legislated that competition would be unequivocally denied to Bahamians “de jure” until April 2014 and “de facto” until 2015 as it concerned the logistics for introducing competition.

Mr Christie explained that if the government broke any of the signed terms of the agreement, it would have faced heavy penalties.

Specifically, the Prime Minister said the blocking of competition along with any preparation for competition came with the Ingraham administration’s amendment to the 2009 Electronic Communications Sector Policy. The policy prohibited initiating any process, including engaging the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), to award a second cellular licence before April 6, 2014. The Communications Act 2009 did the same.

Additionally, Mr Christie said the granting of contractual undertakings to Cable and Wireless Worldwide in the Share Purchase Agreement signed and tabled in the House of Assembly on February 8, 2011, detailed that no cellular licences would be issued prior to the outlined date.

“In a nutshell,” Mr Christie said, “this denial was accomplished by reserving to the Minister with responsibility for the Electronic Communications Sector the right, in the Communications Act, to allocate and award premium spectrum for cellular services, and then by a subsequent amendment to the Communications Act, making it illegal under the same law for the Minister to make such an award or even start the process for such, before the end of the monopoly period.

“Concurrently, the Electronic Communications Sector Policy was amended to provide for the same prohibitions as those placed in the law and contained in the Share Purchase Agreement. Against this backdrop of facts that show how the government’s hands were tied with respect to introducing competition in cellular services before 6 April, 2014.”

As the monopoly condition expired last month, the government has appointed a task force to award a second cellular licence in the shortest time possible, Mr Christie said. The task force consists of a cross-section of persons with experience in public policy, telecommunications operations, policy and regulation, finance, and law, among other professions. URCA will support the task force with the relevant technical expertise.

“The task force has created a framework for ongoing collaboration of relevant government agencies having a regulatory mandate that would impact the roll-out of telecommunications services across the country. This collaboration is focused on updating and streamlining processes conducive to a competitive environment.

“The task force’s most immediate mandate is to formulate the competitive selection process that would be used by government to select the second cellular provider.”

Mr Christie said the task force has already started consultations with the URCA geared toward finalising a Request for Proposals (RFP) document. The RFP will contain the methodology and the criteria to be adopted by government to select the second mobile provider. The process is to comprise two phases.

Phase one will involve an evaluation of the proposals submitted in response to the RFP. The evaluation will be based on pre-determined criteria, which will be used to determine that the applicants have the necessary capacity to offer mass-market cellular services to a high level of quality across the Bahamas.

In addition to technical and financial capability, the government will also consider the extent to which applicants offer opportunities to the widest base of Bahamians for participation in the ownership of the new licence. Only those applicants deemed suitable in phase one will be allowed to participate in phase two, which will take the form of a spectrum auction.

Mr Christie said it is anticipated that once an invitation notice is published by government, the entire selection process is expected to take up to six months. The new provider, he said, should be able to launch services within an additional six months.