BTC (Bahamas)
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Formerly called
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The Bahamas Telecommunications Company Ltd. BaTelCo |
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| Industry |
Wireless Telecommunication Broadband internet IPTV |
| Founded | 1966 |
| Founder | Government of the Bahamas |
| Headquarters | Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas |
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Area served
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Bahamas |
| Products |
Mobile telephony Wireless broadband services Long distance Fixed line Broadband IPTV |
| Owner | Bahamian Government (49% voting / 49 economic) Cable & Wireless Communications (51%voting / 49% economic) National Trust (2% economic) |
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Number of employees
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Estimated 550 |
| Website | www |
BTC is the primary telecommunications provider for the Bahamas, headquartered in Nassau, New Providence. It is partly government owned and offers telephone, internet and wireless services.
BTC is an acronym for the Bahamas Telecommunications Company and offers telephone, internet and wireless services. In New Providence and Grand Bahama, it operates a GSM based EDGE, HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE network. Dual-class shares are 49% economic shares/49% voting shares of BTC are owned by the Government of the Bahamas, with 49% economic shares/51% voting shares owned by Cable & Wireless Communications and 2% economic shares in a national trust.
In 1892, the first telegraph cable landed in The Bahamas. This submarine cable was connected from Jupiter, Florida to the western district of New Providence, coming ashore in Goodman’s Bay. The area then became known as “Cable Beach.” Over the years technology advanced and on October 5, 1906, the first telephone system was introduced with 150 subscribers in Nassau.
Gradually, the Out Islands began to enter the communications age, with Bimini getting wireless telegraphy in 1920 and Grand Bahama opening its first Telegraph Station in West End in 1925. On December 16, 1933 that first telephone service to the United States from the Bahamas was introduced.
After World War II, the Telecommunications Department, of The Bahamas began to make steady progress in its development. Frequency shifters, the first in the Caribbean, were installed in 1946. An automatic time of day announcer was installed in Nassau in 1951, the very first outside of the continental US. Nine years later, in 1960, a Forward Tropospheric Scatter was installed between Delaporte and Florida City, the second of its kind in this hemisphere, the first being in Cuba.
In 1966, the Government of The Bahamas, by an Act of Parliament, incorporated the Telecommunications Department as the Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation, a quasi-governmental corporation, known as Batelco. In 1967, the formerly expatriate-run Batelco got its first all-Bahamian Executive team, under the direction of R.E. Knowles, the first Bahamian General Manager.
In 1971, direct distance dialing was introduced for Batelco operators and in 1972, under new General Manager Albury E. Curling, a $7 million submarine cable was installed from West Palm Beach to Eight Mile Rock through a joint venture agreement between AT & T and Batelco.
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Wikipedia