Digicel yesterday announced that it has been forced to suspend its reduced international call rates, following an injunctive order obtained by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), for which it said it had received no notice.
The announcement came a after the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) wrote to Digicel Guyana, instructing it to pull all advertising featuring the reduced rates. Digicel also sent text messages informing subscribers of the suspension, while adding “The fight goes on!”
“Digicel must now take steps, under threat of sanction by GT&T, to withdraw the offers for reduced international calling rates as launched earlier this week,” Digicel Guyana said in a press release.
“The court order obtained by GT&T was secured without any notice having been provided to Digicel. The company was not granted the opportunity to appear at Thursday’s hearing despite having notified the relevant bodies of its availability and willingness to appear at any such hearing to make its case for the continued provision of cheap international calls,” Digicel said.
Digicel Guyana’s CEO Gregory Dean was quoted as saying, “Digicel is gravely disappointed that GT&T has, once again, torpedoed the introduction of lower rates in Guyana. We publicly called for GT&T to finally embrace competition and to meet Digicel head-on in the market place. We wanted GT&T to go toe-to-toe with us to win over customers through vibrant competition. Instead, GT&T chose to run off to court and seek orders without notice to deny the people of Guyana the benefits of real competition. GT&T chose not to embrace competition, but instead reverted to type in seeking to protect its supposed monopoly at all costs.”
He continued, “As such, Digicel has no choice but to now suspend the provision of greatly reduced rates. GT&T has, once again, managed to further prolong the monopoly that it has enjoyed since 1990 and will continue to earn massive monopoly margins on international calls off the backs of beleaguered Guya-nese consumers. However, Digicel has made a commitment that it will continue to fight to see the introduction of real competition and the provision of lower international rates.”
He said that on Thursday afternoon, Digicel publicly asked GT&T if it was ready and willing to rise to Digicel’s challenge for real competition. “Digicel got its answer yesterday evening through the service of legal documents designed to once again thwart competition. Nevertheless, we will keep our promise to fight to give Guyanese consumers what they deserve,” Dean said.
Digicel began offering the lowest ever international rates seen in Guyana following a decision of the High Court on Friday July 20, which declared GT&T’s monopoly to be unlawful and invalid.
The PUC on Thursday ordered Digicel to immediately withdraw all advertising of new rates. Digicel failed to approach the PUC before the implementation of the new rates.
Acting CEO of GT&T Major General (retired) Joe Singh told Stabroek News that the actions of Digicel Guyana flew in the face of the country’s sovereignty. “It is a clear violation of the law [for that company] to ignore the order of the court,” Singh said.
Singh also pointed out that all rate adjustments must be done through the PUC and in failing to adhere to this the company is in clear violations of the Telecommunications Act. He said that Digicel is treating a sovereign state and a government with contempt.
