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World Consumer Rights Day… Time has come to regulate the cell phone sector-Minister Ali
In a drive to highlight the importance of consumer protection in building a safer, fairer world, the Consumer Affairs Division, in collaboration with the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission and the Guyana National Bureau of Standards hosted a consumers’ awareness session on Friday.
The forum was held at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal under the theme ‘Fix our Phone Rights’
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Irfaan Ali, delivering the feature address, said that the time has come to regulate the cell phone market.
The event was geared to celebrate the rights of consumers and fixing their phone rights as they join with international partners.
World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) was celebrated by consumer organisations worldwide every year on March 15.
Ali said that the only right to a consumer is very basic and that is the power of the consumer to consume or be consumed. Because of that reason, big phone companies spend such large budgets on marketing and why technology in phones is changing rapidly as they have seen the ability of consumers to consume themselves in a better phone daily.
He added that very often, people become too engrossed in their mobile phones that they take away from society and often forget that landline instruments exist.
Ali said that the consumers today, more and more, allow themselves self redress in terms of protection when they purchase phones. Often, they bring cell phones from foreign places and unlock them and, thereafter, if there is a problem with the instrument where will they go for redress?
The mobile market has become so exciting that there are deals like paying nothing down and the many trade-in offers. Given the many imitation cell phones on the market, the time has come to regulate the sector, noting its size and that of the consuming public, the Minister said.
Ali stated that, as such, the small cell phone dealers will have to subject themselves to scrutiny as well as the large companies. Chairman of the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission, Mr Ramesh Dookhoo, said that the legal infrastructure changed over the years with the introduction of the Consumer Affairs Act 2011.
He said this pioneering legislation has led to the composition and formation, in 2011, of the Consumer Affairs Commission known CCAC. In actual fact, the first bit of legislation that governs its establishment was the Fair Trading Act of 2006.
He said that cell phones have become an indispensable part of people’s lives. They can be found in every country around the world and in 2013 the Consumers International estimated that 6.8 billion people owned mobile phones.
Guyana is currently in the process of fine tuning the Telecommunications and Public Utilities Commission (Amendments) Bills, which are both before a parliamentary Special Select Committee. The Telecoms Bill seeks to provide for the establishment of a telecommunications sector and for matters incidental thereto or connected therewith.
This is a landmark piece of legislation that would place Guyana in the League of Nations with modern legislation in the provision of telecommunication services. It will move Guyana from a nation with a monopoly provider to one where free and fair competition in all segments of service provision is allowed.
These are all very relevant issues raised by Consumers International in relation to mobile phone rights.
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