Telecoms liberalisation… No deadline when GTT negotiations will conclude

Jan 23, 2018 News

After years of little progress to bring new telephone companies, in July 2016 Guyana managed to pass key legislations – the Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill 15/2016.
It would be part of the process of liberalising the sector and allowing new players to enter the market.
However, one and half years later, negotiations are still ongoing with the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), the US-owned entity that has monopoly on paper on landlines and international calls.
With anger at the seeming sloth of investments, like the unrolling of landlines in unserved areas by GTT, the delays in concluding the negotiations have been causing unease.
However, Guyana will not be rushed in concluding the process, insists Minister of Public Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes.
Responding to questions yesterday, Hughes, during a press conference at her Camp Street office, said that negotiations were being conducted in an extremely “cordial manner”.
She noted that GTT and its parent company, US-owned Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN), have had a monopoly situation in the more than 20 years when it came to the telecoms industry.
With talks ongoing to break that monopoly, Hughes said, it is understandable that stakeholders will want to ensure that in coming to the table, the best deal is made- that is going to be good for Guyana.
Stressing that her Ministry has no input in the financial side of things, the Minister said that the competition will bring several more positive opportunities for citizens.
The Commissioner-General and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will want to ensure that they have all the bases covered, she said.
With tax breaks and other issues with GRA, the telephone company has been holding out for a number of concessions.
However, GRA is mindful of the implications of giving special treatment to GTT.
In fact, that issue was addressed by Hughes yesterday. She said that any concessions will be offered to all operators in the sector.
She warned that the “focus” is not getting the negotiation done in the shortest span of time but making sure that there is an “end game” that suits everyone.
Therefore, Government is “extremely careful” to ensure that there is a deal with which everyone is happy.
There will be no special privileges, Minister Hughes stressed.
GTT competitor is Digicel which has expressed an interest in also landing a fibre optic cable.
Digicel has been aggressive, too, in competing with GTT on the mobile market, but under the current arrangement is supposed to route foreign calls through GTT.

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