Residents living in the area commonly known as "over the bridge" will finally have cable television in their homes, after agitating for years for the amenity.
Cable Bahamas officials have announced that by Christmas, many homes in that area will have service.
"The technical team has been working around the clock to get those areas ready and we expect them to be about 80 percent complete by Christ-mas," said Edris Wilson, operations manager of Cable Bahamas' northern division.
"We know that this has been a long time in coming and we're happy to see it come to this point.
"The over the bridge area is so expansive that there are some areas that we have not been able to get to in this first phase of work, but it will be an ongoing process we expect."
Complaints from persons living in that area have been frequent over the years, with one resident of the Derby Subdivision, west of the Casuarina Bridge, making a public appeal back in October 2009 for change.
The homeowner told The Freeport News at that time that the lack of cable service in the area was a great inconvenience, and put residents at a disadvantage.
They have had an added expense of having to purchase satellite systems simply to keep abreast of current events, the resident said.
Wilson acknowledged that the company's work in Grand Bahama is not yet done, since there are still some populated areas of the island with no service.
"We will have small pockets of areas that don't have service. I know Bootle Bay is an area that's come up.
"At the time that we initially took service out in that area, Bootle Bay was really not on the map and so now that those areas are becoming more populated there are residents there who I know have been agitating for service," she said.
"We're amassing a complete list, not just in Grand Bahama but certainly in the other Family Islands as well as areas that we'd like to get to, it's just a matter of meeting our commitment with the regulator in terms of the areas that we need to provide service to on a more immediate basis.
Besides an increase in the availability of service, the company will also be providing customers across the island with more choices as it relates to their service selections.
"As a part of where we are today, the opening up of competition, we've been asked by the regulator, URCA, to unbundle our services and essentially we have cable TV, we have Internet and as an addendum to cable TV we've got our premium services that's available through the set top box," Wilson explained.
"Unbundling means now that a customer wanting Internet service only, no cable TV, no set top box, can now get that service. Previously cable TV was a prerequisite to getting the Internet service and so now with the unbundling that's what will be available. The unbundling of services, will of course happen with areas that have been transitioned as fully digital areas."
