Bahamas Press opposes URCA’s support for Cable to use competition cell towers and URCA should be made to answer the courts for its blatant bias!
Nassau, Bahamas – Bahamas Press is one watchdog in this society that constantly monitors the place and what we see happening deep down at the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority [URCA] in favour of Cable Bahamas is indeed questionable.
Recently audacious press statements by URCA in the morning dailies are mostly in favour of Cable Bahamas in its quest to build its parent company NewCo to become the country’s second mobile provider.
We have watched how URCA’s newly appointed acting CEO Stephen Bereaux was bold in the Nassau Guardian alongside NewCo’s Damian Blackburn, telling the oldest mobile provider what it must do to make sure the second company gets up and running through the use of its cellular towers.
No one believes for a minute that CBL has any intention of building a national mobile network and thus, with URCA’s assistance, it was important to try and force BTC to allow tower sharing on its expensive national network. Imagine that.
We scratched our head long and hard asking why would URCA be seeking an opportunity to speak on behalf of Cable Bahamas’ NewCo?
And then it struck us. Yinner remember how URCA approved increased local cable rates for Cable Bahamas while the country was shaking up and dancing at Junkanoo in 2015? We were all caught off guard! And what about the fact that CBL still has scores of communities left in the dark without Cable, never fulfilling its national mandate? Where was URCA on that?
But then we at Bahamas Press discovered something that shocked us for a second time. Guess who is still URCA’s Chairman? Mr. Randol Dorsett.
According to URCA’s website Mr. Dorsett is a Partner in the Nassau Office of Graham Thompson, a leading law firm in The Bahamas. http://www.urcabahamas.bs/about-board.php
He, yinner should remember, was a Partner at that firm in downtown Nassau back in 2012 when he was appointed to head URCA. We had called for his resignation from URCA as it presents serious and dangerous conflicts by URCA on matters involving a firm that did work for Cable Bahamas!
Our records proved back then in 2012 that the Chairman of URCA was the attorney on file at that major firm representing the cable company. WHAT A CONFICT! UNBELIEVABLE!
For weeks now we at Bahamas Press have been questioning the bold pronouncements by URCA. But all we can say is this: Now ya KNOW!
We report yinner decide!
