The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved a new interconnection agreement between telecommunications providers, Guyana Telephone and Telegraph and Digicel.
The integrated package includes interconnection rates for mobile termination, fixed termination and the fixed network transit rates.
In a statement, the PUC said after holding a public hearing, it agreed to all rates as submitted in the application by GT&T except the retail landline fixed to mobile rate. With respect to this, the Commission after intense deliberation, agreed to a rate of $12 a minute, despite representations made by both companies that the agreed rate should be $17 a minute, the statement said.
The agreement has been in effect since January 1 and the approved rates are for four months and shall be reviewed on application by either party on or before April 30.
The PUC said that its Order, dated December 28, 2010, is binding on both GT&T and U-Mobile (Cellular) Inc, trading as Digicel.
The statement recalled that both telecommunication companies had been operating under an interconnection agreement for a number of years and for which the Commission had given its sanction. However, the agreement came to an end on January 13 last year after a notice was given by Digicel to GT&T, to terminate the then existing agreement.
“In the interim period after the notice was given by Digicel, the companies failed to agree to a new interconnection agreement. Consequent to this, the company Digicel has not been paying for services received from the company GT&T but in the interest of the consumers, the services continued to be offered pending the new agreement,” the statement said.
According to the statement, the PUC, in the public interest and in the interest of both companies, initiated a public hearing last March with a view to establishing an interconnection agreement between the parties. Throughout the hearing, the Commission has been suggesting to the parties that they engage in bilateral negotiations, in order to arrive at a mutually acceptable agreement, the statement said.
It recalled that last November, GT&T made an application to the Commission indicating that the parties have reached an agreement in principle on an “integrated package of interconnection rates and related issues but have not finalized all the terms and conditions of a full-fledged interconnection agreement.”
The company requested that the Commission approve the said integrated package.
The PUC noted that both companies were forced to make compromises in order to arrive at common ground with respect to a new interconnection rate schedule after intense and lengthy negotiations.
“Both parties have committed to enter into settlement after an approved agreement with respect to outstanding monies due to each other for the period when the interconnection agreement lapsed,” the statement said.
