Islands anticipate deregulation; Art does pre-fab Homeland security policy suggests not to place cable warning stakes over expensive or high-volume buried cable routes. The idea: Don't make it easier for the bad guys. Most have buried warning tape above to help prevent damage. Laws require "call before you dig." No good reason for signs. Pre-fab buildings When I first got approved to provide phones to unserved areas, cheap buildings were had by using old semi-trailers. Easy to move. Lots of room. With a paint job and maybe skirting (if I had time) in rural areas, they seldom looked out of place. Times change. On May 10, I watched as a $900,000 mobile crane lifted an Oldcastle-made 70,000 pound 12 x 27 foot concrete replacement switching office. It offloaded and swung the building to position exactly over a T-shaped cable vault that will be accessed by a trap door in the floor. After the cut, moving the old semi found that most tires still held air. The flat ones also took air, allowing the trailer to once again roll - away. The new CDO exterior is a light-brown stucco. A separate side door allows access to the propane generator (I sent Oldcastle) installed as part of the package. Included were floor and wall slots to hold ironwork and cabling that my guys do after delivery. Figure $30,000 delivered. This structure is ready to go. All we do is connect power, grounds and telecom wiring. This pre-fab building will house our new Taqua switches. Although it's only 28 inches high, RUS didn't think we could install without factory folk. Oookaay. Hang it in a 19-inch rack. Plug in cables. Route them to the mainframe. The software load can be tricky. Don't try doing it at home. It is refreshing to work with a vendor that listens. Support the Post Office Every magazine has several tear-out post cards that make casual reading difficult. So after tearing them out, please deposit in the nearest mailbox. Big bucks for USPS. And no, dummy, don't fill out the cards - (except for this magazine). The Bahamas The Grand (Bahamas) island starts 60 miles east of West Palm Beach, Fla. Light aircraft make the flight often. The island boasts an interesting commercial enterprise in which a vast area is leased for 99 years to the Freeport Co. They have spent millions to build a modern harbor for container storage and processing. Jobs for citizens. Big airport. Southeast over the ocean 100 nmi from Freeport is the capital city Nassau. From the airport to town is $24 bus or cab. Use a cab with working air, but verify the fare. Avis with AAA is $75 a day. The high-rent district of Nassau is a tiny island off the north shore connected to the mainland (Nassau city) by a pair of one-way bridges. Called Paradise, the island boasts classy homes and three hotels. On Paradise, the Atlantis Resort and posh Las Vegas-style Casino with some 2200 rooms is the biggest employer in Nassau. Rack rates $350 to $550 per night. The complex can use up to 17 megawatts of power, which costs 25 cents per kilowatt to generate from a 35 megawatt slow diesel power plant built by the country for the resort. Atlantis revenues got low enough after Sept. 11 that its stock made the "watch list." Recent occupancy on busy nights is approaching full - and the market has noticed. Seventeen months and counting is when deregulation of the monopoly Bahamas government-owned telco Batelco is scheduled to take effect. That is, if the new government voted in on May 2 doesn't change things. Batelco is a bloated bureaucratic government enterprise. Studies indicate that it only needs 60% of its current employees. I've never met anyone who likes Batelco. When competition arrives, toll rates to the US should plummet from a buck for the first minute to way less. Richard Purdy is a Canadian V.C. who last year completed a fiber cable TV network (from Florida) to and within four of the Bahamas islands. Locals stand in line to subscribe. The official flower now has to be unused satellite dishes. (A chicken is the bird). Atlantis leases private telecom circuits (to their Florida offices) from Rich. His stock is up. Do ya think Rich thinks about deregulation? Copyright 2002 by A. W. Brothers and Americas Network magazine. All rights reserved.   © Beehive Telephone Co.