Cable & Wireless (West Indies) Limited see the opportunity in The Bahamas as being one that is very complementary to its business base that exists in the English-Speaking Caribbean.
In an interview with The Guardian on Thursday, Lisa Agard, Executive Vice President, Legal Regulatory & Public Policy at Cable & Wireless said, “We think that we bring a lot to the table because we already have a presence in the Caribbean. It will be very easy to integrate the operations of BaTelCo into our existing system.”
She said that Cable & Wireless is examining BaTelCo’s prospects and that a proposal would be submitted to The Bahamas Government by February 24.
California-based Trans World Telecom (TWT) has also made a formidable bid for the 49 per cent stake in BTC, the successor organisation to the Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation. The Bahamas Government qualified the partnership last month. The company is conducting its financial and operational review of BTC.
Aware that the bidding process would be vigorous, Ms. Agard said Cable & Wireless feels quite comfortable that it is the best choice. “We operate in the Caribbean that have similar economic base such as The Bahamas – tourism and financial services.”
With an annual revenue of 5. 9 billion pounds, Cable & Wireless operates in 73 countries worldwide – 15 in the Caribbean with a significant minority interest in telecommunications services in Trinidad. Cable & Wireless operations stretch from Bermuda in the Atlantic to Trinidad in the south, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The company recently got a licence to operate in the French-speaking Caribbean countries of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Ms. Agard also argued that Cable & Wireless is best suited for The Bahamas because it is a major telecommunications company globally, and it is organised into two distinct businesses – Cable & Wireless Global, which basically represents operations in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. And, the business provides data and Internet protocol services to small and medium enterprises, and large multinational companies that want to have one network all over the world.
The Bahamas Government is hoping that BTC would be sold by June to facilitate its plans for e-commerce.
“Privatisation of the telecommunications company should not only provide additional funds to Government for debt-reduction in 2003, but should also provide increased capacity for expanding information technology including high speed data transmission capabilities which are essential to the e-commerce development effort,” Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Senator James Smith told a Business Outlook seminar last month.
Many governments view e-commerce as the engine of new growth in the Caribbean.
“We support those initiatives by developing the infrastructure that would facilitate those kinds of operations,” Ms. Agard said.
Cable & Wireless West Indies has a division to ensure the delivery of those services that would support not only e-commerce activity but also business activities, generally she said.
Bermuda was one of the first countries in the region to pass electronic transactions legislation, also Cayman and Barbados and several Eastern Caribbean countries. The Bahamas is seeking to pass e-commerce laws.
Cable & Wireless is also working with other companies for “e-procurement and e-auction”, so that they can obtain products on-line at reduced prices.
“What the technology can deliver to customers is amazing, particularly to business customers who want to operate more efficiently,” she said.
Ms. Agard said Cable & Wireless is aware that The Bahamas Government wants to attract a strategic investor with global capabilities to ensure that BTC is able to offer state-of-the-art technology to its customers.
“They also want at the same time, to implement a competitive telecommunications environment and they see the privatisation of BaTelCo as a necessary first step in that,” she said.
One of the things the government has committed in the privatisation process is that the new company would have management control.
“Getting ready for competition is an enormous task,” Ms. Agard said. “We had to do that in all of our businesses in the Caribbean. Like BaTelCo, all our businesses were historically monopolies.
“We have negotiated with governments in the Caribbean, and the only ones left are the British Overseas Territories, in which we are negotiating.
“We expect, certainly by the end of this year or early next year to have completed all our negotiations with governments in the Caribbean. We have particular experience and expertise in knowing what needs to be done to transform a business to operate in a telecommunications environment.”
As far as unions are concerned, as in the case of BTC, Ms Agard said, employees are critical to the privatisation process; the union, as representative of the employees is also important.
“We had to go through a cultural revolution in our business and all focused and centered around the customer,” she said. “The customer is who matters; they want a choice, a wide range of products in services, they want impeccable customer support in the event things go wrong and they want it fixed quickly and they want things at affordable price.”
Despites its monumental acquisitions, Cable & Wireless has suffered the effects of the downturn in global economic conditions, particularly in the telecommunications sector.
“Our share prices have plunged enormously,” Ms. Agard said. “But what differentiates us from other global players is that we have no debt, we have a strong cash balance and we have resources available to explore new growth opportunities.”
She noted that The Bahamas has a high fixed line penetration rate, a measure that the ITU uses to gauge economic developments of countries. BTC’s levels of penetration as compared to other countries are quite high, she said.
“BaTelCo has delivered positive benefits to The Bahamas,” Ms Agard said. “I think the core network is very robust, notwithstanding the congestion problems you are currently having on the mobile; the investment and development has not kept pace with the demand.
“On the other hand,” she continued, “there are some challenges but any challenge is an opportunity. In our view, BaTelCo is well placed with the right kinds of changes to compete.”
Aware that the bidding process would be vigorous, Ms. Agard said Cable & Wireless feels quite comfortable that “it is the best choice.”
By Lindsay Thompson, The Nassau Guardian
