BTL Says Merger Could Boost Roaming Revenue

BTL says one of the biggest payoffs from consolidating Speednet would be more roaming revenue for Belize. The two major telecoms admit years of cut‑throat competition for U.S. roaming traffic have turned into a losing game, with both companies slashing rates while American carriers continue charging visitors up to five U.S. dollars a day. BTL claims that battle has cost the country tens of millions of U.S. dollars in lost foreign exchange over the last five years. The company argues that by ending the price war, a merger would give Belize back its bargaining power and keep more roaming dollars at home. Here’s what CFO Ian Cleverly says has really been happening.

 

Ian Cleverly, Chief Financial Officer, Belize Telemedia Limited

 “BTL and speed net have both suffered from a race to the bottom. BTL and speed net have been competing for the same traffic. And naturally they’ve been competing on volume and rates. What this is, what this, what has happened is rates have dropped to the bottom or gradually decreased over time. That has impacted BTL and speed net negatively, but also the country has missed out on US dollar currency. We know how much BTO has lost over the last five years, and the amount is significant. If you multiply them annual rate by times by five, it’s a large number of revenue that’s been lost. But more importantly, US dollar currency that the country hasn’t gained. The only people benefiting from this lower roaming rates is the US carriers, because they still charge three to $5 a day for customers coming into Belize, and we get a minute amount of that value. I can say we’ve lost between 40 to $50 million a over five year period of hard US dollar currency that hasn’t come to the country. Speed net would’ve lost us an amount. I can’t comment on their value, but based on BTLs, we’ve lost a significant amount of money that hasn’t come through the country.”