It is counterintuitive but a mandated profit is required and standard in an industry where a company has significant market power as cable does in tv services. Otherwise they could deliberately underprice their service to prevent other companies from entering into the market. It is called price dumping. So a mandated profit actually encourages competition. The fact that cable has not had competition despite the fact that their monopoly ended five years ago is testament to how unprofitable basic tv is and why they deserve their price increase and then some. Content providers make a lot more profit in the current environment than service providers. So your argument is false. Cable is not gouging the public as you erroneously say. Again all else you say about cable might be true but supfurflous to this point.

What you have said is irrelevant to your erroneous statement that cable is gouging the public on its basic service. Which part of cable earning a profit margin of less than the mandated 10.86% on basic do you not understand? This has been independently verified by external auditors and accepted by URCA. The fact is that by earning less than the mandated 10.86% on basic cable is itself being gouged! Save your erroneous populace rhetoric for people without access to intelligence and facts!

You get what you pay for. It is true that basic programming leaves a lot to be desired, but what do you expect when the cost has not increased one cent in over 20 years! All the while the expenses associated with providing this service have increased drastically. And you say cable is gouging its customers - absolute nonsense. Cable is earning less than the mandated rate of return of 10.86% on basic. So URCA in not granting a price increase is forcing cable to be in violation of its own rules - utter nonsense again. If the price were increased then cable would be able to provide a better product and service. And the business license fees and URCA fees cable pays are 5.8 million a year! That is outrageous on annual revenue of 150 million and a net income of only 11.3million. And this is what you call gouging! In a real way cable is really only working to pay salaries and taxes, it's net income could and should be much higher if it were regulated fairly. It would be helpful if your argument were supported by the facts but it is not, the truth is cable deserves every cent of this increase and then some.

Gordon Craig is not interested in transparency, he is interested in protecting Rubis potentially to the detriment of the health of the public. He was proud to say the report on the leak at marathon done by black and vetch was outdated and that Rubis had hired Arcadis to do another report on the air and water quality in marathon. He shared this with the government but refused to release the report to the public. If he cared about transparency and the health of our citizens why the secrecy? Bahamians should boycott Rubis until they become more forthcoming and release this report. Of course it will never happen as Rubis is being sued by cable bahamas for $15 million in regard to this leak. So Gordon Craig is more concernd about profits than the truth and the health of bahamians. And we need a debate as to whether it is appropriate for Rubis to be leading this investigation of another potential leak. This investigation should be lead by the competent government regulator.

It is sickening in this country how the the rich politically connected white collar criminals are coddled and protected from prosecution. Yet the poor black young man who is found with a joint is prosecuted and sent to fox hill. Our prison is full of poor uneducated black men many of whom committed far less serious crimes that this bribe taking traitor who the attorney General continues to cloak. In the United states this criminal would be subject to a public walk of shame in hand cuffs to demonstrate no one is above the law. Our attorney General should be ashamed of herself, she refuses to even name this traitor much less prosecute them, the hard work has already been done by the U.S. authorities, there is a confession by Alstom. The injustice in the country and particularly with this corrupt PLP reeks to high heaven.

Mr. Nottage seems to have great difficulty with the English language, it is clear that as minister of national security he did not know how many murders have been committed in the past five years. If he did know then he intentionally mislead the house. Either way it shows how incompetent he is, and the need to have him replaced. We have such inadequate cabinet ministers it is farcical and depressing, no wonder this country is in the complete mess it is.

Who cares? I want to know Mr. Brave Davis when will the treasury be reimbursed by Mr. Hanna 2.6 million for the destroyed building he is liable for? Make sure interest is added for our lost use of the building. Do not tax us to death with Vat for your incompetency and this man's dishonesty. Not one red cent of my taxes should be used to rebuild. A bottle of hooks is straighter than this crew! They really are all so disgraceful. In a civilized society Mr. Davis would have resigned long ago.

The commissioner should really stop saying crime is down, NO ONE believes this except him. The truth is crime is terrible and getting worse. I recently went to my little police station in a sleepy family island to report two crimes. People were out the door waiting to report crimes. When I finally saw the officer he showed me a stack of crime reports on his desk, it was literally THREE inches high! Now if this is going on in a community of 1000 people what about Nassau. How many of these reports are accurately forwarded to headquarters when the incentive for all involved is to underreport crimes. And then how many crimes are simply not reported by the public at large? Until these statistics are compiled by an independent body I will never believe them, all parties currently have a vested interest to underreport so as not to alarm the public and make themselves look good.

URCA is a complete mess, definitely not transparent, and seemingly not independent from government influence. Why has there been a delay in the spectrum auction? URCA refuses to answer, simply no comment. This is unacceptable from a regulator who should be transparent and open with the public who pays their salaries and stand to wait further as this delays true competition and with it better prices and services. Who benefits from this delay of awarding the second license, BTC of course, which is either 49 or 51% owned by the govt. this stinks to high heaven. Then they are mandating that the second cellular license winner use BTC's crappy towers, so we get no better service and BtC gets paid a usage fee for their crappy infrastructure. We have waited too long for better service, let cable build their towers, give a 100% bahamian company the second license and URCA stop retarding progress and competition. And while we are at it can the tribune please investigate and URCA comment on the conflict of interest in having the wife of a senior URCA executive and spokesman and regulator on the selection committee for the second cellular license. That stinks to high heaven too! We deserve better, and we are tired of this CRAP!!!!

Shocking!