Dear Editor,
Is URCA the Regulator or the Facilitator for Aliv in mobile competition
After experiencing a rough month of December that exposed Aliv’s lack of knowledge and inexperience as the 2nd mobile service provider in the Bahamas. The old saying comes to mind, if you fail to plan, more likely you are planning to fail and it began from day one when they were scheduled to roll out their services October 1st; and that did not take place until two months later. Surprising there was no comment or discipline to Aliv’s infractions from URCA. Or possibly the excuses had already been set by URCA’s acting CEO Stephen Bereaux who in the August 18th, Nassau Guardian said ” That no mobile company can be rolled out in 18 months to 2 years”. I am wondering is URCA the regulator or the facilitator for Aliv in mobile competition?
With the many challenges that Aliv’s has had in the first month of operations, from their network crashing a week after they launched in Nassau which force them to close business early. They went to Grand Bahama, Eleuthera and Abaco to launch their products and the reception they got from locals was disappointing to disheartening. A video clip was circulated a few weeks ago from Abaco, which revealed that Aliv’s CEO Damion Blackburn actually went to their competition (BTC) event, and spoke briefly to the crowd in attendance.
This is not a good sign for Aliv who was dependent of robust sales in December to sustain them through periods of January and February of 2017. Mired in financial problems and investor confidence that is extremely shaky to nonexistent. This comes after Bereaux said ” URCA has no reason to believe that NewCO doesn’t have the adequate funds to go forward with it roll out scheme” It’s painfully obvious that Aliv are completely in over their heads and without a game plan. Now URCA is considering rewarding them for their failures by introducing number portability to bail them out after they have failed to meet many previous commitments. It appears that URCA is throwing ALIV a life preserver for survival.
Is URCA the Regulator or the Facilitator for Aliv in Mobile competition
Sincerely
Trevor Williams
