The Nassau Guardian
Miller slams CWC on BTC outage
Following a blackout that impacted cell phone and landline services in areas across the country on Saturday, Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday accused Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) of “wrecking” the local telecommunications company.
Miller, who was speaking in the House of Assembly, said the massive outage, which impacted thousands of Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) customers “was damning to the country”.
“It affected the reputation of our country,” he said.
“It affected our number one industry, the [tourism] industry, when that situation took place and I don’t understand it.
“You have URCA (the Utilities Regulations and Competition Authority) here, and I sometimes wonder what purpose they serve.
“Bahamians suffered over the weekend.”
According to a BTC statement, a disruption in landline and mobile services resulted in a loss of service for prepaid mobile customers and sporadic service for postpaid customers.
Landline and Internet services were also impacted in Cat Island, Exuma, Abaco, Rum Cay, San Salvador, Bimini and the Berry Islands, according to the BTC statement.
BTC’s Senior Vice President of Brands and Communications Marlon Johnson said yesterday that BTC is still investigating the cause of the outage.
He said the public will be updated once the report is complete.
Johnson said except for a few isolated customers, service has been restored. BTC has apologized for the disruption.
Johnson declined to respond to Miller’s criticism of BTC and CWC.
Miller said he has not seen such a massive outage in about five decades.
“I take the greatest offense that we as a people have allowed a foreign entity to walk into this country and give us service that is incomprehensible when it comes to first class service in our country,” he said.
“I daresay they have taken us back about 50 years in the level of service that we are getting. It took Bahamians to build BTC and it took foreigners to wreck it.”
CWC purchased the majority stake in BTC for a reported $210 million in 2011.
The sale was very controversial and continues to face scrutiny.
Over the past several weeks, BTC has sought to improve its service.
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