The deputy chairman of a high tech start-up in The Bahamas and the former CEO of Reuters TVweighed in on the sale of 51% of the shares of BTC to Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), predicting that CWC’s know-how in broadband would strengthen BTC’s online services and build a part of the business that has yet to reach its potential.
Brian Quinn, a long-time resident of The Bahamas and one of the most respected voices in the international telecommunications industry, said the Bahamian government had “few options open to it” when it selected CWC because of the “small size of the market, limited growth potential, BTC’s intermediate technology and current reliance on its mainstream wireless business.”
Those conditions, coupled with BTC’s valuation of under $1/4Bn, ruled out attracting a major finance house with telecom experience, said Quinn. Without a financial powerhouse behind it to drive a changing BTC and prepare it for competition when the market opens to other providers in two to three years, the company needed an operator with solid experience and the agility to move quickly as technology changes.
“For BTC to rapidly upgrade its delivery technology, it requires another more advanced operator to come in to make that change,” said Quinn, who has served as chairman of several international companies including BrightStar when it was the world’s largest wideband satellite carrier. “The new route to consumers’ pockets is via fast broadband making a host of new services available.
This scene is changing rapidly and technology which effectively disrupts what was in vogue yesterday is now becoming commonplace. This means being fleet of foot and though BTC might enter this market in future, it will be difficult to do while at the same time radically overhauling its mainstream wireless business. However, C&W are highly knowledgeable of this market and clearly see a future for BTC.”
Quinn, currently the Deputy Chairman of IP Solutions International, is the immediate past Director-General of the International Institute of Communications, London, and the former CEO of what is now Reuters TV. He is a sought-after speaker at international conferences.
