Seriously! "Our marinas are the best in the world" Where have they been to come up with this statement? The concensus on line is that all the top marinas in the world are in Europe except for one in Miami, one in St Barts and one in Abu Dhabi. It is a typically extravagant claim and is only likely to result in disappointed customers.

TalRussell if you look at all the postings about the BTC sale on line, you will find references to the PLP government Talking to CWC back in the 90's about an alliance of some sort. This was prior to the talk of the sale of BTC. Mind you when you are reading these postings you have to realise that a lot of them are posted with huge political bias.

I should add on a point of historical accuracy, Cable and wireless may have been the original suitor for BTC as they had talks with the Christie government in the 90's before the original auction process had been mooted.

If Mr Smith is as smart as his article is long he will know that the original and the subsequent bidders all pulled out because they were not prepared to do business as a minority partner to any government body. Prior to CWC the one company remaining was an unknown entity and if only some of the rumours about the bidder are true then they would not have been a minority partner with the government.
I still think that many possible investors are going to think twice about investing here especially a joint venture with any government entity. They are not going to bother whether it was not "a standard privatisation model" they are just going to see a deal that was voted on and approved by the Bahamian government and then they are going to see the same Government of the Bahama trying to renege on the deal after the purchaser has invested millions in new systems. Systems that are scarcely likely to work properly the way the government is kicking out the ex pats that were brought brought in to set them up. The anti ex-pat fervor that is being fomented by the members of the current administration may also influence future foreign investors. By the way I do understand that not everyone who comes here on a contract intends to stay and take a job away from a Bahamian. Some of them are only too happy when the contracts are over and they can return to normalcy.

I agree with sansoucireader, many Bahamians would be prepared to buy locally if the selection and choice were available. It has to be preferable to being 'allowed' to visit the States by US security. However the market here is small and for high end products it is tiny so the vendors do not have the luxury of quantity buying and due to the limited market do not always get the right product here, then once they get stuck with a slow seller the do not understand the principle of deep discounts to turn over the stock.

Well it is going to come under pressure again when they have to give back the money to Cable and Wireless plus an amount commensurate with the value of all the new systems put in place since the sale.
What happens when they fail to meet the required standards?

URCA is a pompous little organisation that thinks it is dealing with AT&T or British Telecom. Have they any idea of the state of the financial and maintenance record keeping that existed at BTC/Batelco prior to the sale of the company?
To have a regulatory body to regulate the phone and cable companies in a city the size of Yellowknife (similar population to the Bahamas) would not be fiscally responsible unless it comprised of a staff 10 multitasking individuals. This URCA is ballooning as do all civil service departments and yet all they do is just boilerplate sections of regulations that they are lifting from the major telecom companies around the world.
If the government ends up repossessing BTC it will interesting to see well the future BTC responds to this kind of request from URCA

Just ask anyone who works at BTC what is happening there since the PLP took office.
It is difficult to understand how this type of behaviour can be so blatant. It is not just the PLP it is the Bahamian political way and will keep the Bahamas back for as long as patronage is accepted.

What are these figures based on?
If they are based on the survey that is posted on the back of the landing cards, then the figures should be treated with more than just a grain of salt!
Most of these surveys are filled in at the time the landing card is returned. They are filled without much thought and in a hurry.
Why not encourage an on line survey for visitors with a chance of winning free nights or companion airfare to the winner. This might yield a much more reasoned survey with a chance of learning something of the visitors experience.

Once the PM gets BTC back then you will not need number portability as there will be no competition allowed in for several years. In fact you will scarcely need URCA!