Providing clarity on the highly contentious issue of frequencies

Nov 29, 2014 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Since I see some confusion regarding the allocation of frequencies and the way they should be obtained, I would like to offer some observations to the public which hopefully will bring the situation more clearly into focus.
I have to start with an article in the Kaieteur News which was captioned “Limited US airwaves fetch US $34 billion and counting”. When one reads the article one sees that the frequencies under consideration are the 1695-1710 MHz band of which two blocks were sold along with four paired sets of frequencies located at 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz.
The KN article rightly explains that in the US these frequencies are being allocated to assist in the congestion caused by cellular phone services, especially smart phones. Apparently the explosion in the use of smart phones etc. has created a burning need for more bandwidth, hence the monstrous return of 34 billion US dollars for these frequencies.
In our situation these facts are more relevant to Digicel and GT&T, and those companies which intend to use these frequencies to operate a cell phone system. And they will surely have to bid for this bandwidth even here in little Guyana. In these matters, the frequency to be used is very important, and the higher the frequency the more difficult they are to propagate, hence the need to bid for the lower frequencies.
In Guyana there is already an example which shows the confusion which can arise when the authorities don’t care about the international treaties they signed, and are prepared to break any agreement they are signatories to, and allow their friends to break them as well.
The 1996 Final Acts of the International Telecommunication Union [ITU] set out frequencies for the use of specific services of all countries, including Guyana, which signed the agreement in 1996. It was intended to regulate the frequencies used by all countries to minimise interference between countries.
The Kaieteur article correctly brought two companies which are providing cable services, E-Networks and Quark Communications, into focus, since it is true that these operations were given licences to operate wireless cable by Jagdeo without it being advertised to the public to attract competitive offers for obtaining the rights to do so.
So at one fell swoop, Jagdeo endowed two companies with a virtual monopoly to operate wireless cable countrywide, without first alerting the public that these frequencies were being offered for wireless cable and inviting bids from interested parties. In total secrecy – since these were not considered by him as national assets but his personal property – the two companies were awarded the frequency to conduct Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) without the public being informed how these national assets would be disposed of, by whom, and what price they paid for the rights. These cable services at over $9500 per subscriber per month, earn more in one month what the private broadcasters earn in one year.
To add insult to injury, this illiterate government has put these two cable entities to be regulated by the Broadcasting Authority, when in fact they are more like public utilities.
I have written on this before, these cable systems are not broadcasting since they are subscriber-based and therefore operate like a public utility. Their rates should be set by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and there should be public hearings on their operations, since I believe that they are overcharging for the inferior service they provide.
I have myself disconnected from one of these services I was using. Mr. Ramjattan’s words that it’s “the dirtiest, most corrupt act of our time,” now becomes relevant. But the situation gets worse; the MMDS band, formerly known as Broadband Radio Service (BRS) and also known as Wireless Cable, is located in the 2500MHz to 2700MHz band.
One of these operators, E-Networks unable to get the penetration they wanted at 2500-2700 MHz, the band internationally set aside for this type of service, is using lower frequencies, which usually comprise the UHF Broadcast band, since channels 14 through 83 occupy frequencies between 470MHz to 890 MHz, to conduct MMDS cable services, thereby probably depriving broadcasters of bandwidth, especially since Shadick has already announced that there are no frequencies left in the UHF band for Georgetown.
In April this year, the Jamaican government announced that they had auctioned the 700 MHz frequency for US$25 million to Digicel for allocating them this frequency in the UHF broadcast band to deliver data, Internet applications, and video streaming at higher speeds. We are not aware that E-Networks were required to pay anything for the use of the UHF Broadcast frequency they are using, probably in this same 700 MHz range.  These are limited national resources; we can’t be giving them away like this.
The Kaieteur News article was not on target regarding the methods which we as nation have decided to use in the allocation of radio and television broadcast frequencies. After the 2001 elections Desmond Hoyte and Jagdeo, then President, signed what later became known as “the Dialog” there was never any question of auctioning the broadcast spectrum. And it happened this way.
As a result of this Dialog, there was set up a Bipartisan Board on Broadcasting chaired by Gail Teixeira and Deryck Bernard as co-chairpersons, with equal power; and in their final submission/recommendation it was agreed by both the government and the opposition that all frequencies should be frozen until the establishment of an independent and autonomous Broadcasting Authority [BA] and that broadcasting licences, radio and television, will be given with a special condition, whereby the owners must reflect the ethnic composition of the areas to be served. That way everyone will be served, both owners and operators, in this racially divided country of ours, not to be bought through auctions by those who have money. And we know who they are; they fly around in private jets with US$620K in cash tucked under seats.
As has now become a hallmark of Jagdeo’s administration, he violated his undertaking in writing to both Hoyte in the Dialog and Corbin in the Communiqué to allow the Broadcasting Authority, when formed, to give out broadcast licences according to the recommendations of the Bipartisan Board on Broadcasting.  He just allocated a bunch of radio frequencies to his pals and supporters, totally violating his legal obligation to consult the opposition before he did so. This breach of contract has never been legally challenged by the opposition.
On this basis, I again challenge the legality of all the radio licences which were given out to date and they will have to stop broadcasting when this matter sees the light of day. Reporting that the frequencies for broadcasting should be auctioned off is completely contrary to the spirit of the agreements between the government of this country and the opposition since 2001, in both the Dialog and the Communiqué, and is a totally different matter than what happened in the US with the auction of frequencies for cellular service.
Tony Vieira

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