Authorities in the Bahamas will auction off the country’s sec ond mobile licence next month and there are two companies in the running.
The Bahamas government’s Cellular Liberalization Task Force announced earlier this week that it is resuming the licensing process after a postponement earlier this year.
Domestic broadband and TV provider Cable Bahamas will fight it out with a new Virgin Mobile unit for the licence, the state confirmed.
The pair qualified to take part in the auction in April, but the government called a halt to proceedings later that month to enable it to investigate an alleged irregularity on the part of Cable Bahamas related to the construction of communications towers. The probe showed that Cable Bahamas was in contravention of auction rules but that its actions did not warrant disqualification from the process; instead, the government imposed a financial penalty on the company.
The winner of the contest will be decided on a points system, the task force said. A state holding company will then be set up and will take a majority stake in the new licensee.
The winning entity will launch mobile services in competition with Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC). The state holds a 51% stake in BTC with the remainder in the hands of Cable & Wireless.
Should Cable Bahamas win the licence it would be able to compete fully with BTC, which already offers quad-play services. There has been speculation in the local press that Virgin Mobile could look for a partner to enable it to offer a full service portfolio, were it to emerge victorious.
A third player, Caribbean mobile specialist Digicel, was also in the running for the new licence, but pulled out in late April. According to local newspaper The Tribune, Digicel found the conditions imposed on the sale to be too onerous; it reportedly objected to the state majority ownership clause and the aggressive rollout requirements the winning bidder will face.
