By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Business Desk, Inderia@nasguard.com

It seems that the privatization of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is already a hotly contested bidding process, with Cable and Wireless Limited (CWL), a regional wireless company, announcing its interest in this market.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Guardian Business, Drexwell Seymour, Chief Executive Officer at CWL, Turks and Caicos, said the company was indeed eager to expand into The Bahamas.

"We are hoping to extend our telephone and Internet services there right now [while] the government reviews the Bahamas Telecommunications Company," he asserted. "I think [the move to The Bahamas] would be profitable."

Presently, CWL provides services to 13 other Caribbean countries, including Barbados , Jamaica, Cayman Islands and St. Lucia, a country where they also deliver cable television services.

The company may, in fact, stand a better chance of successfully capitalizing on the cable services end of this market, with Cable Bahamas, this country's sole cable provider, set to lose its exclusive contract next year.

Cable Bahamas was licensed in 1994 to supply Cable TV to The Bahamas and was subsequently, granted a monopoly in this market in the form of an exclusive license for 15 years.

CWL may be better off competing with Cable Bahamas, instead of delving into the phone and Internet services market, where at least one company is already in talks to acquire a 49-percent stake in BTC.

It's something Seymour is well aware of, he told Guardian Business yesterday, asserting CWL remains committed to exploring possible entry to all facets of the local cable/telecommunications market.

"I believe we would have submitted an application, but I'm not sure how that's looking," he said. "My understanding of it is that there is an agreement in place with BTC and another company.

"But, we're still going to try."

There may be even more obstacles in his way, however.

Just last week, State Minister for Finance Zhivargo Laing announced that the telecommunications industry would be one of only two sectors to be exempt from the current Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) services schedule the government has negotiated with the European Union.

"[We chose] telecommunications because of the pending privatization of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC)," he explained.

As it stands now, the government has established a panel preparing BTC for sale. It is a move that many charge represents a duplication of past efforts by the previous administration.