Dear Editor,
I want to congratulate the government for bringing an end to the 30-year monopoly of the telecommunications sector. Now that this major activity has happened it should be our hope that the market forces of the so-called “free market system“ would work to weed out the inefficient service providers and that customers would receive a higher level of quality service properly priced.
Given what is taking place on the international financial markets it is my opinion that in time to come a buyout of one of the major players in the telecommunications sector in Guyana might be on the cards.
I also believe that the act of ending the monopoly and the operation of the free market system will not automatically lead to the provision of fair priced products and the delivery of an efficient level of services to the customers and as a result of this belief, it is my recommendation that the National Assembly and the Public Utilities Commission should raise the level of effective oversight and regulation of this sector as it relates to the following:
#1 The enactment of appropriate and timely legislation to deal with the development and regulation of the sector.
#2. The development of new products and the introduction of additional services.
#3. The fair pricing of services and products; prices that are fit to live with for the supplier and customers.
#4. The proper establishment of sensible procedures to deal with customer complaints and the timely provision of after-sales service and
#5 The prevention of collusion and monopolistic behaviour between the companies operating in the sector.
PS. The above list is not exhaustive.
Based upon my experience and research, public utility companies if they are run properly should become very prosperous and profitable entities and they often turn out to be stable investments that provide constantly good stable dividends to their investors. There is a school of thought that public utilities companies should be publicly traded entities with the Government and the wider public owning shares in the entities (maybe the Government and the wider public owning about 40% of the shares of the entity).
It is my belief that in time to come the policymakers in Guyana might want to give serious consideration to this type of ownership for other public utilities companies in or coming into Guyana; one sister Caribbean country has already started to embrace a similar type of ownership model.
Yours faithfully,
Dunstan Barrow AA
