Digicel Guyana CEO Gregory Dean has expressed the concern that government through its Telecommunica-tions Bill is seeking to mandate how companies invest in the sector rather than allow the forces of a free and open market to determine how investments evolve.
Dean said this was the only concern that Digicel had regarding the talks the company had with government on the liberalisation of the sector leading up to the debate of the Telecommunications Bill and its related Public Utilities Commission Bill.
“The government wants changes in terms of coverage in remote areas and other things that they would like to see in the short order. We are saying competition would drive some of those improvements in services as well. So for us, we don’t think you should necessarily have a heavy-handed legislation that mandates everyone saying this is what you have to do,” Dean said in an interview with Stabroek News on Friday.
“In a monopoly situation maybe that is what you need to do but in an open competitive environment and a level playing field, I don’t think is it absolutely necessary,” said Dean. “If you are asking what aspects of the legislation we would [want to see changed] it would be those aspects. We have never had an opportunity to see how a competitive environment works. So we would always believe you should liberalise, see how the environment works and then you decide on what is necessary,” said Dean.
“We expect the sector to keep revolving and legislation to [keep evolving with it]. With the changes in technology you will have to make changes to the legislation,” he said.
“We have been involved in the process. From a Digicel point of view we have concluded the talks with the government.
However the meat of the discussions has been between the government and GT&T,” he said. Neither the government nor GT&T has provided details on the talks to break the telecoms monopoly.
“Based on recent statements from the government I think that process is now concluded or close to concluding. So we now move to the next stage where we now expect these Bills to move through Parliament,” he said.
“I think for us, we were a bit sceptical of the process. We had concerns [with regards to] having a deadline for the process.
We did still engage in the process and I think it was good that all parties were able to meet and thrash out any concerns they have going forward,” he said.
[We feel] it is time to liberalise the sector so that all the operators could start moving forward and start investing with some certainty,” he said. “It is obvious if you’re a cell phone user that the time is fast approaching where we need to move beyond EDGE whether it is 3G or 4G or LTE in terms of technologies,” he said.
“In terms of price, in most other countries international call rates are lower than in Guyana,” he said.
He noted that since Digicel came in, domestic call rates dropped by around 50 per cent. “You may see more expansion in terms of bringing coverage to new locations around Guyana. From a Digicel point of view what we would like to see is a full communications licence that would allow us to go into other areas as well.
We came in as mostly a mobile player but more and more the business is now moving to becoming a full communications player that includes landline, internet and a lot of focus on data in terms of improving the user experience with smartphones,” he said.
He said that the company would have well been on the way to offering data services if the talks with government and GT&T have not dragged on for such an extended period. “It is obvious that the EDGE network, while it has served us well over the years, we are getting to the point where we do need to upgrade the network and move beyond EDGE…I think customer usage out there is demanding that,” he said. “People want to do more things with their phones [and with the newer technologies] it would allow customers to do more,” he said.
He said that the company is excited about the possibilities of landline services and more traditional mobile services for the company. “We would like to become a full communications player and as technology evolves that may also drive some of the other avenues we may go down,” said Dean.
He said that under normal circumstances telecommunications is a fast moving business. “We would like to see the same thing reflected in the Guyanese market,” he said.
Neighbouring markets he said have all gone 3G or 4G and Guyana is well behind. “They are further advanced in terms of data services that they offer customers…they offer a lot more business solutions as well, whether fixed line services or internet,” he said. “They offer a wider range of services compared to us in Guyana where we are still offering 2.5 G services or EDGE. Some of the products and services they are offering, we could only dream of at the moment. It is no secret that we are somewhere behind in the game,” he said.
“The only market which is not yet liberalised in the English speaking Caribbean is Guyana,” Dean said. He said that Antigua was liberalised last year and is already offering LTE (long-term evolution) services.
It is unclear when government will move to the debate on the Telecommunications Bill and the Public Utilities Commission Bill.
These two pieces of legislation have been on the Order Paper for months but have been continually deferred to allow for government to hold discussions with the two rival telecommunications companies.
