Georgetown: Executives of one of Guyana’s telephone giants (Digicel) met President Donald Ramotar and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds Thursday for talks regarding the company’s growing impatience for liberalisation of the international telecommunications market, and the approval needed to offer competitive international rates.
The issue which has been in the making for about six years is set to be addressed with the Telecommunications Amendment Bill and the Public Utility Commission’s Amendment Bill 2012, piloted by the government in the National Assembly that will hopefully be passed within the next few months.
Telecommunications service providers have been given copies of the bill to peruse and were recently informed of Government’s intention to put on hold the second reading of the bills pending negotiations with Digicel and Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company. The move, according to Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon, was to heighten engagements on reform in the sector.
Digicel Guyana’s Chief Executive Officer Gregory Dean and Caribbean Chief Operations Officer Kevin White were given the assurance by the President and Prime Minister that the legislation will be handled expeditiously.
“We certainly have the president’s assurance that they want to bring liberalisation to the international market, they want to bring it quickly and that they will bring this bill to the select committee as soon as possible with the support of the opposition groupings,” Mara said.
In July, Digicel, acting on a High Court ruling on GT&T’s monopoly, arbitrarily moved to slash international rates by 88 percent but was blocked by an injunction filed by GT&T and a reprimand from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
GT&T currently holds a 20-year monopoly licence for landline communication and other services, occupying shares with its parent company Atlantic Tele Network (ATN).
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