DIGICEL founder and Chief Executive Officer Dennis O’Brien has launched a strident attack on the monopoly on international telephone calls held by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, (GT&T) prompting a sharp response from the ATN subsidiary’s Chief Executive Officer Brigadier General (ret’d) Joe Singh.
In a blunt response to a question on liberalization raised by the Stabroek Business during an exclusive interview earlier this week O’Brien said that telephone users in Guyana were being “ripped off for international calls.”
‘If you’re a DIGICEL customer in Jamaica and you’re a DIGICEL customer in Guyana, in Guyana you’re paying 135 per cent more than what you should be paying for an international call and that is because GT&T are making super profits from the people of Guyana and they won’t give up their international monopoly.”
However, in a sharp response to O’Brien’s comments on the monopoly Singh dubbed the remarks “intemperate.” He said that the DIGICEL founder was “blissfully unaware that GT&T has consistently articulated its preparedness to work with government to realize sector liberalization.”
In a letter after Stabroek Business had sought a response from the company to the remarks made by O’Brien Singh restates GT&T’s willingness to move its discussions with government on the monopoly “to conclusion.”
Stabroek Business has seen correspondence between GT&T and the offices of both the President and the Prime Minister alluding to the issue of the GT&T monopoly. A November 15, 2006 letter from Prime Minister Samuel Hinds to Chief Executive Officer Singh set out a list of issues that government had identified for discussion with the ATN subsidiary including the “introduction of competition” and the “future of government’s 20 per cent share in GT&T.”
In a letter to President Jagdeo on May 30, 2007 Singh noted that the company had been ready to negotiate since May 2006 but that possible dates had been twice postponed by the Prime Minister because of the President’s busy schedule. He went on to say “As you know, GT&T holds an exclusive licence for international voice and data services, as well as other services, for an initial period of 20 years subject to renewal at our option for a second 20-year period. As the initial 20-year period winds down, we are fast approaching the decision point for exercising the renewal option for the second 20-year period.
We wish to assure you that GT&T and ATN remain willing to enter into an agreement whereby they would relinquish their right to renew the exclusive franchise for international voice and data services for an additional 20-term.”
Singh expressed surprise that a businessman like O’Brien would argue that the government ought not to honour the agreements and licences it had entered into with GT&T while calling on government to promote foreign investment.
The sharp exchange between the Chief Executive Officers of the rival cellular service providers comes amidst an intense rivalry that has ensued since DIGICEL launched its countrywide marketing blitz here earlier this year. President Bharrat Jagdeo has been one of the sharpest critics of the GT&T monopoly and has charged that it has had the effect of delaying the country’s economic growth. The President has said that he wishes to be integrally involved in discussions between GT&T and government concerning the monopoly.
Singh’s letter to the Stabroek News dealt extensively with O’Brien’s charges that the rates for international calls were excessively high, asserting that the allegation was “reckless and unsupported.” He stated that insofar as the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) must approve GT&T rates, the DIGICEL CEO’s statement “constitutes an attack on the Commission.”
And in response to O’Brien’s assertion that GT&T was “ripping off” telephone users Singh said that international telephony was one of several services being offered by the company and that the sector has been designed to have international telephone revenues subsidize other services including the provision of telephone services to homes and businesses. Singh said that the existing “design” cannot be changed without a “modernization of the telecommunications laws and regulations” and charged that O’Brien had sought “to juxtapose the price of an international outbound call in Guyana and Jamaica,” a pursuit which he described as “a spurious comparison.”
He went on to provide figures to show that other telephone charges in Jamaica are considerably higher than in Guyana.
In his letter Singh also said that GT&T’s international telephony is subject to fierce competition from illegal operators that utilize alternative calling systems. He said that many of the illegal operators utilize GT&T’s underlying network infrastructure free of cost.
O’Brien’s attack on the GT&T monopoly and Singh’s response could rekindle the long-running, ‘off-on’ public and often acrimonious debate between the government and GT&T over the monopoly. O’Brien told Stabroek Business that in his discussions with President Jagdeo he had gleaned the distinct impression that government was seeking the liberalization of the telecommunications sector as early as possible.