Director of Digicel, PJ Mara; CEO, Digicel Guyana, Gregory Dean and Group Projects Manager Lisa Lewis yesterday called on President Donald Ramotar at the Office of the President and Mara later indicated that the company plans to broaden its operations here.
Speaking to the Government Information Agency (GINA), Mara said that the meeting was to keep the President informed about the company’s plans and to garner his views on the company’s overall performance in Guyana.
“We are broadening out our whole range of services into fully fledged telecommunications business, moving away from being just a single play mobile phone business…becoming more heavily involved in ICT,” the Director said.
He added that the company was looking forward to meeting with more officials to develop new services for the Guyanese community.
Speaking also to GINA, Dean said that all the parties have expressed an interest in breaking the telecoms monopoly and added that his own company is hopeful that the Telecommunications Bill, which paves the way for a more liberalized sector, will be passed in the Tenth Parliament.
“It is necessary for all the players in the market that we have a level playing field so that we can all compete evenly and it will bring a lot of benefits for the Guyanese consumers in terms of the products and services as well as price…even with the limited competition we have had so far, we have seen over 50 percent reduction in prices, access has improved and quality has not suffered, so for us we think that in a liberalized field we can have the same quality, new products and at a lower price,” Dean said.
The Telecommunications Bill which was presented to the National Assembly on August 4, 2011, seeks a new and coordinated, open and competitive telecommunications sector, breaking the GT&T monopoly. It also provides for the establishment of the telecommunications agency, which will consist of a Director and a Deputy Director and heads of division as designated by the Minister.
Once the legislation is passed, it is expected to result in greater choice, better quality service and lower prices for consumers.