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BNamericas
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Patrick Nixon |
Monday, November 17, 2014 (BNamericas) – The Bahamas government intends to give the second mobile operator in the islands a three-year grace period before allowing the entry of a third operator, according to the website of the government’s Cellular Liberalization Task Force (CLTF).
Last week, the government invited interested parties to apply for the nation’s second mobile operating license.
The new entrant would compete with incumbent BTC, which has been controlled by Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) since April 2011 and which enjoyed a post-privatization cellular exclusivity period that ran out in April 2014.
Expressions of interest for the second operating license must be submitted by December 10 and proposals by February 11, 2015.
The idea is for the whole process to take six months and the new operator to launch services before the end of 2015 and have full coverage within three years.
According to the CLTF, a license for a third operator cannot be issued before April 5, 2016 and it is likely the entry of a third mobile operator will be delayed for at least three years from the commercial launch of the second operator, giving the latter time to establish itself.
This is an excerpt from BNamericas as it appeared on November 18, 2014. For updates or to read the current version of this post in its entirety, please click here.
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