Digicel yesterday announced reductions of up to 88% in its rates for overseas calls in the wake of a ruling by Justice Rishi Persaud in a case by a DSL subscriber and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph immediately said that the decision had been stayed and that it is appealing the ruling.
Following the High Court’s ruling on Friday which said in part that GT&T’s monopoly is unlawful, Digicel Guyana yesterday announced up to 88 percent reductions on international calling rates beginning at 18:00 hrs yesterday.
In a press release from Digicel Guyana, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Gregory Dean, was quoted as saying, “Digicel is elated to finally provide Guyanese consumers with fair international calling rates after decades of exploitation by GT&T.”
“Digicel has been operating under a monopoly held by GT&T for the past five years and we are happy that customers will now be able to reap the benefits of a fully liberalised telecommunications sector. Reducing international callings rates is just the beginning; we have extensive plans for further growth of Guyana’s telecoms industry. Customers will soon be able to enjoy other fantastic offers on international calls,” he said.
The press release said that on Monday Digicel alluded to the decision of Justice Persaud in the Commercial Division of the High Court in which he ruled that the monopoly held by GT&T to provide telecommunications service or to regulate voice and data transmission over the internet is unlawful and void.
“Calls to the Caribbean, USA, and Canada are now reduced by up to 62%, while China and Brazil will see reductions by over 80%. A complete list of new call rates for destinations worldwide will be printed in Wednes-day’s newspapers,” the Digicel Guyana release said.
It noted that GT&T has claimed a monopoly on international calls since 1990, forcing Digicel to route international calls through GT&T’s network. “Following the expiration of the international monopoly in Antigua last month, Guyana remained the last country in the Caribbean region to allow an international monopoly to persist. The High Court of Guyana’s ruling on Friday has now conclusively determined that this monopoly is unlawful and invalid,” the release said.
However, in a press release, GT&T said that the Commercial court ruling by Justice Persaud “is in clear violation of our lawful rights under the Telecommuni-cations Act of 1990 and other Guyana laws.”
“We are advised that the Commercial court has already stayed its ruling, and therefore enforcement of the judgment has been suspended,” GT&T said. “Today (Tuesday) we submitted our appeal of the decision and remain entirely confident that the decision will be overturned by the Court of Appeal,” the local telephone company said.
It noted that the attempts to develop telecommunications policy through piecemeal court decisions are harmful to both consumers and the country. “GT&T has long made it clear that we support an open and competitive telecommunications landscape. We stand ready to negotiate a thoughtful, comprehensive policy that both protects consumers and promotes further investment by GT&T in Guyana’s telecoms sector,” the GT&T release said. This newspaper attempted to make contact with acting CEO Joe Singh and acting CFO Sonita Jagan but to no avail.
Digicel’s statement did not say if it would be operating its own international gateway but this was implicit in its announcement of the rates cuts. It is yet unclear what Digicel’s response is to the legal moves by GT&T or whether the Public Utilities Commission will intervene in the matter.
