URCA grants BTC 4G licence

Bahamian watchdog the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has issued a 700MHz spectrum licence to the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) and expects to issue a similar concession to Cable Bahamas shortly. URCA made 72MHz of spectrum available to operators and received applications from five companies for use of the frequencies. Two were rejected as they did not meet URCA’s minimum criteria whilst a third is awaiting approvals from other licensing bodies. BTC’s 15-year concession consists of 24MHz of 4G Long Term Evolution-suitable (LTE-suitable) spectrum and includes certain rollout requirements. BTC is obliged to cover 75% of the population of New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco and Eleuthera within 18 months, increasing to 99% coverage of those islands and an additional two islands within 30 months. By each of the 42- and 54-month milestones BTC must have covered 75% of two additional islands.