New Telecoms law could be passed today

Jan 03, 2013 News

The government is looking to get new legislation for the telecoms sector passed in the National Assembly today in hopes of putting an end to the so-called telephone monopoly held by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, GT&T.
The Bill is to provide for the establishment of the Telecommunications Agency “and for a regular, coordinated, open and competitive telecommunications sector.”
Digicel Guyana, which credits itself with bringing down the cost of handsets and slashing by half local rates in its six years of operations here, has argued that its ability to generate a better profit is stymied by the telecommunications monopoly.
The company has especially been held back from offering international services.
With over 100 sites countrywide, the company has tabulated its subscribers to be about 250,000.
Inbound and outbound calls through Digicel’s network are routed through GT&T, since the company is the only one with an international licence in the telecommunications sector.
Digicel has forever complained about its inability to operate the way it wants, and the only gateway is legislation.
The company has called for a timeline for the liberalization of the sector. Even if legislation is passed today, there is no telling when the legislation would be implemented.
The legislation was due for the last Parliament, but was subsequently pulled by the government and the two companies engaged in a public debate about who was responsible, with Digicel accusing GT&T of threatening legal action if the law went through. GT&T rubbished the accusation.
Digicel has argued that businesses should thrive on merit and through competing vigorously, “not by sitting on a guaranteed monopoly for two decades that grants it significant advantages over other operators.”
The company said that the decision by the government to stall the legislation meant that international calling rates remained high.
Recently, the government said that there is no deliberate move to delay the liberalisation of the local telecommunication sector since such a process is critical to country’s national development strategy.
The Bill could have gone to Parliament earlier, but the government decided to hold off allowing for further consultants with the Digicel and GT&T.
The Bill calls for a number of changes in the policies and operations of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which regulate rates, and as such an Amendment to the PUC Act is also due for passage in the House today.
The new legal framework created is “characterized by transparency and non-discrimination in the issuance and monitoring of licenses and authorizations to use the spectrum, seamless interconnection and access between and among telecommunications networks and services and price regulation where required to ensure competition and protect consumers.”

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