History of BTC

The late nineteenth century is regarded as the beginning of the modern electronic age. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented a device which made it possible to transmit the human voice over wires, this was named the telephone and Bell’s invention was used by the first telephone network in the United States.

This amazing invention transformed the whole world, including The Bahamas. Only three years after Bell’s invention, telephonic communications arrived in our islands on a limited scale. In 1879, the Governor’s and Colonial Secretary’s offices in Nassau had the first telephones installed. The Governor reported that “at first the sounds and words were not distinct but afterwards they came along the wire with perfect clearness”.

The Bahamas at last had instant communication with the rest of the world, when, in 1892, an undersea cable was laid between Jupiter Inlet in Florida to New Providence. The cable came ashore at Goodman’s Bay and subsequently, the area became known as Cable Beach. By 1894, the Police Barracks was connected by telephone to its stations in Grants Town and the Eastern District.

In 1906, the Bahamas House of Assembly passed an Act establishing a telephone system in New Providence. The telephone station was officially opened on October 5th, 1906 with a staff of seven and 150 subscribers.

A Public Telephone was installed in the Bay Street Marketplace in 1908. Stallholders and subscribers used the system free but the general public paid 1¢. Due to huge public demand, the system was extended further east as far as Village Road. By the 1940’s it included Fox Hill and Lyford Cay.

By 1913, the cable had failed and it was replaced with a Wireless Telegraph Station at Fort Charlotte and eventually, in the Family Islands, providing a link to New Providence and the United States. It was also at this time that a Marine Telegraph Service was established in the country.

In 1938, a number of significant changes occurred at the Department, chief of which was the changing of the manual telephone system to an automated dial system. At this time, the Department was renamed the Telecommunications Department, or Telecom, as it was affectionately known by the general public!

In the early 1950’s, there were still only 250 phone lines each in the western and eastern districts. These phones did not have numbers, the parties had to be connected via switchboard operators.

By the 1960’s, there had been a massive growth of habitation outside the traditional city of Nassau, necessitating additional infrastructure.

This was essentially the beginning of the modern age of telecommunications in The Bahamas. Quantum leaps in technology were made in a few short years, culminating in today’s digital communications.

Over the years telecommunications has improved impressively from the first installation in 1879 to fibre optic connection which now provides state of the art service throughout the length and breadth of the Bahamas.