Today is the deadline for companies to submit preliminary bids for 49 per cent of state-owned Bahamas Telecommunications Company.
The Bahamas Government is to maintain 51 per cent in the public’s interest.
Senior vice-president and chief operations officer Leon Williams has confirmed that eight companies have completed due diligence with the prospect of offering a bid on BaTelCo.
He said the eight are: Cable & Wireless, Sercortel, Trans World Telecoms, Citigroup, Blu Tel Communications Network, J P Morgan, Ripplewood Holdings, and Digicel.
The government is hoping to create a fully wired, liberalised competitive environment for telecommunications in The Bahamas.
And, in order to make BaTelCo a viable investment, Mr. Williams said the company is putting best practices in place in terms of management and reorganisation.
The restructuring process started in 1998 when the former government acquired the services of London-based telecommunications group Deutsche Morgan Grenfell for advice on the privatisation exercise.
Then in 1999, an estimated $80 million was paid out in separation packages to about 500 BaTelCo employees.
Meanwhile, BaTelCo has placed a moratorium on any new celluar phones as the network reaches near capacity, resulting in frequent call drop-offs and less than acceptable levels of toll-quality voice services.
It would take an estimated $28 million to upgrade BaTelCo’s cellular services to an acceptable level, once the improvement project is approved by Cabinet.
By Lindsay Thompson, The Nassau Guardian
