Bahamas: three telecommunications bills have passed the lower house including creation of a regulator

The communications sector is one step closer to complying with international standards and best practices after a package of bills related to the sector was passed in the House of Assembly Thursday.

The Communications Act 2009 comprises of three vital bills, The Electronic Communications Bill, The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority Bill (URCA) and The Utilities Appeal Tribunal Bill that are [together] expected to help transform the face of telecommunications in the country.

But even though the bills were all given the green light in the House of Assembly yesterday, this did not happen without members of the official opposition taking the government to task. They wished to ensure that they were satisfied that each portion of the proposed legislation was in the best interest of the public.

The more hot button issue in The House on Thursday, though, was the role of URCA as a regulatory body for the telecommunications sector and the rights it would actually have.

Among those expressing concern was Fort Charlotte MP Alfred Sears, who said he hopes that URCA does not open up the door for there to be any violation of the rights of Bahamians.

"I noticed that there is no requirement of what that the search warrant specifies and what the suspected object of the search is," he explained. "All it requires is a belief that satisfies a magistrate that URCA has reason to believe that a person is contravening a condition of the license. Should not the search warrant also specify the suspected objects of the search?"

But Minister of National Security with responsibility for broadcasting Tommy Turnquest quickly moved to allay those fears and claimed that Bahamians will not have their rights violated as URCA will be quite aware that there are some programs that allow free sharing of computer information and files.

"The question out there might be to find if we going to send URCA on a witch-hunt around people’s homes," he said. "That is not the intention and if we find that there is a particular nuisance as a result of that, we may have to come back to that. But I do not think that you will find that this would be an issue."

Another issue for the opposition was the differentiation between an individual license and a class license.

PLP MP for Bain and Grants Town Dr. Bernard Nottage is hoping this distinction does not seek to leave anyone out of being able to acquire the document.

But FNM MP Desmond Bannister said two separate licenses are needed to control those companies that offer telecommunications services as their main product and those that offer the same services for leisure.

"A class license would be, for example, a hotel, where the main service that they offer is accommodation," Minister Bannister explained. "But as a part of the service they offer, they also offer a telephone service to their guests, not to the general public. It would be important for URCA to ensure that operators like that are not given the individual licenses and also that they may have to meet certain requirements."

In the end both the government and opposition agreed to all 120 sections and five schedules of the URCA Bill and both the Utilities Appeal Tribunal Bill and the Electronic Communications Bill in their entirety.

The package of bills now moves on to the Senate.

Communications Bill Passed In House