PUC orders six-month limit to GTT promotion

Jun 23, 2017 News

…as Digicel complains of anti-competitive rates

The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has ordered a six-month limit to a promotion of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) which began on February 22, 2017. The promotion will come to an end on August 22, 2017. The order was handed down on June 15, 2017.
According to the order issued by the PUC, the promotion “Get More Pay Less” offered a bundled package, comprising three services to GTT consumers. “The promotion was for varying durations and each plan was individually priced. Consumers, therefore, had the option of choosing a plan best suited to their individual needs.”

Learning of the promotion, Digicel complained to the PUC objecting to the international bound component of the promotion as being anti-competitive.
According to the PUC, Digicel complained that the promotion promises to provide all of GTT’s customers with minutes that could be utilised to make calls to the United States of America and Canada.
The company told the PUC that if all the minutes provided for in the promotion were used exclusively to make calls to the US and Canada, then the effective rates of such calls would be significantly below the PUC-approved retail rates to the two destinations.
The PUC said that Digicel took the position that the promotion is anti-competitive, since GTT, which still holds a monopoly in the market for international services in Guyana, is providing Digicel with a wholesale rate which is considerably in excess of the highest possible retail rate its customers would pay.
Further, Digicel made an appeal to the PUC for GTT to suspend or terminate the promotion. However, in the event that this was not possible, Digicel asked that an order be made that all current and future promotions regarding international rates be extended by GTT to Digicel so that those rates can be offered to their customers as part of bundled minutes.
Responding to the complaint, GTT quoted Section 6.2 of the agreement between Guyana and Atlantic Tele Network Agreement which states: “The license granted GTT in respect of the services referred to in sub-paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of Section 6.1, during the period of the license issued to GTT, no other company, nor Government, shall provide any services to which the license relates. GTT has a legitimate expectation that it should be allowed to enjoy this right and that Government and the regulatory agencies will enforce it. As such, GTT will continue to insist on even-handed treatment in the sector and the consistent application of the rule of law”.
A hearing was then held on March 21, 2017 to further address the matter. There, the PUC heard from Digicel representatives that if GTT customers took advantage of the promotion to make calls to the USA and Canada, they will be doing so with the cost per minute being substantially below the PUC set rates.
As such, the PUC ordered that GTT submits to the Commission on a monthly basis the number of subscribers to the bundled plan and the distribution of minutes for both local and international minutes.
Further, Digicel has ordered by the PUC to provide information showing the impact that GTT’s promotion would have on the outbound section of its business. When the promotion comes to an end in August, the PUC has asked to be advised as soon as this happens.

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