The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) has proposed to offer 'niche' ISPs a 21% wholesale discount on the retail fees it charges its own customers, as it seeks to appease the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA). According to the Tribune, chief rival Cable Bahamas has also issued a cut-price offer, and both proposals will now be subjected to market scrutiny, to verify whether or not they truly provide competitive access rates to smaller providers. In other Bahamian news, Andre Foster, the newly appointed BTC CEO has suggested that there is currently no real demand for 5G connectivity in the Bahamas, and does not expect fifth-generation services to be rolled out until 2022 or 2023. Foster added that the network rollout will require a large outlay of capital, which he said would best be split between both of the country's mobile operators (the other being Cable Bahamas-backed ALIV). The executive was quoted as saying: 'A build like that we would collaborate with other providers because it just requires so much investment from an infrastructure perspective. In New Providence it would be quite an expensive investment to have [5G] ubiquitous throughout the island.'
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