Datacommunications company i-Net has told its clients that it has obtained advice that its operations are legal and says that the onus is on the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) to resume discussions on establishing a beneficial relationship.
Stabroek News
July 4, 2001
i-Net's stance comes in the wake of a letter to it by Prime Minister Sam Hinds on June 7 warning that the operations of the data communications company were in breach of a commitment to enter into an arrangement with GT&T and that it was at risk of being closed down by the National Frequency Management Unit. This letter was released to the press on June 20 by the PM's office and reported on the following day.
In a statement to its customers on June 22, i-Net's managing director Noel Holder assured that i-Net was operating within the legal framework of its licence as a wireless high speed broadband data communications provider and integration firm.
Holder said the company's legal advisors have stated that internet services are not telecommunication services and, therefore, are not subject to administration under the Telecommunications Act 1990.
The advisors have pointed out that the internet was not commercially available until the mid 1990s as a medium of communication.
Given this, the internet could not have been a technology contemplated under the Guyana Post and Telegraph Act nor the Act which established the National Frequency Management Unit and cannot be regulated under these Acts, i-Net's advisors have surmised.
Holder related that i-Net had entered into discussions with GT&T with a view to paving the way for a mutually beneficial relationship. This was done at the request of Prime Minister Hinds.
Holder said i-Net was informed by GT&T at a meeting on November 20, 2000 that i-Net could not be allocated telephone and facsimile lines as there were some 20,000 persons awaiting telephone service.
i-Net then offered to establish a big enough wireless link between the two companies to enable the deployment of the 20,000 lines within a short period. Eighteen months have passed and there has been no response from GT&T, i-Net said.
Holder stated that in the interest of reciprocity, i-Net requested from GT&T a 512K internet circuit based on certain specifications which i-Net provided. This request is also yet to be responded to.
"The Prime Minister has been duly apprised of the present status of deliberations between GT&T and i-Net; that as far as we are concerned there has been no breach in our agreement to continue discussions; and that the onus is with the GT&T", the statement said.
In his letter to i-Net of June 7, Hinds had said that the company was offering certain sevices without the requisite permission and said that it was only allowed to clear "unlicenced" equipment upon its appeal and a "gentleman's agreement" that the equipment would be held in storage and not be put into use until a licence could be arranged.
Hinds added that at a meeting on November 1, 2000 with i-Net he had deferred his request for the company to disconnect the unauthorised system so that the company could hold discussions with GT&T and enter some kind of arrangement relating to the international gateway facilities.