`...the era of monopolies in the telecoms sector is at an end and GT&T knows that'
PRIME Minister Sam Hinds has declared that the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Ltd. (GT&T) is not "an industry in trouble" but "an industry in desperate need of quick reform".

In a statement yesterday, Mr. Hinds, who has responsibility for the telecommunication sector, said "the era of monopolies in the telecoms sector is at an end and GT&T knows that".

He said too that "we are all late in beginning this transformation (and) there is need to begin discussions immediately without preconditions".

Mr. Hinds said that after receiving a release from GT&T Wednesday titled `Portrait of an industry in trouble', he dispatched a letter to the phone company in which he reiterated his invitation of November 23 last year to GT&T to " commence negotiations for the reform of the telecoms sector forthwith".

In his letter to GT&T, he pointed out that "the policy of the Government of Guyana is to enable a free, open, competitive and lively market economy."

"Accordingly, Government is committed to an open, competitive telecommunications and information sector", he said.

According to the Prime Minister, GT&T nor its parent company Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) can say that transformation of the sector to a competitive one with an ending of the monopoly is news to them.

As such, Mr. Hinds reminded the telephone company in his letter: "We want to remind you that as long as 1991, ATN in a statement to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) committed to `encourage the Government of Guyana to open the Guyana communications market to competition in international communications within the next five years' (Order DA 91-1375)."

"We are now 11 years on from 1991," the Prime Minister noted.

Pointing out that the era of monopolies in the telecommunication sector is at an end, the Prime Minister said he could not put it better than GT&T does under the heading, "The Changing Telecommunication landscape" on page 3 of its release (Portrait of an industry in trouble).

GT&T said: "Technological innovations have made competition in the provision of telecommunications possible. The conventional telecommunications sector is in the process of being displaced. That Guyana's telecommunication sector will become competitive is inevitable. The questions to deliberate now are (a) how can we best manage the transaction? and (b) how best might this country attract investment into this sector?"

Mr. Hinds responded by pointing out "we are all late in beginning this transformation (and) there is need to begin discussions immediately without preconditions". He said too that changed sentiments and technological innovations have created unpredictability and lack of clarity in a number of areas of regulation.

And in response to GT&T's complaints about the Government's failing to move against the I-net company and a range of other examples which it claims violate their current monopoly and the national laws, Prime Minister Hinds acknowledged that there are so called "grey areas".

These are areas where various experts, both in law and communications technology will give different opinions on whether a particular arrangement violated or not the rights set out some 20 years ago, he said. It also reflects concepts and language in vogue and appropriate to that time, before the revolutionary changes in the telecommunications landscape.

Indeed, whilst systems and services were many times spoken of almost inter-changeably, now there is seen to be the need to clearly separate systems (hardware) and services; and as well to define more sharply different degrees of private and public systems particularly when coupled with arguments about free speech and free association, Mr. Hinds asserted.

The Prime Minister also alluded to a paragraph in the GT&T release which said: "Technological innovation is moving far faster than legislative and regulatory change. As a result, a host of new services become possible even though these services have no regulatory status" (neither allowed nor forbidden).

The instances referred to by GT&T such as I-net and Internet telephone (VOIP) require reform of old legislation to more clearly address, if not make irrelevant, today's questions about the definition of the degree of private systems versus public systems, and how to deal with so called accounting bypass as distinct from system bypass, Mr. Hinds said.

He added that the Government, in order to avoid the telecom sector opening up in a chaotic manner or becoming locked up in litigation based on varying interpretations of laws and licences which have been overtaken by time, will proceed deliberately and quickly with the reform of the sector and prefers to do so with the cordial participation of GT&T.

The Prime Minister is also urging GT&T and ATN to accept that the Government "is firmly committed to reaching mutually satisfactory solutions" which will provide the growth and development of competitive companies, consistent with good telecoms policy around the world including the United States, where ATN is headquartered.

Mr. Hinds noted that, in September 2001, the Government gave wide publicity to and held consultations on a `Consultation paper on Issues and Options for the Reform of the Telecommunications Sector in Guyana' as part of an Inter-American Development Bank supported project to reform the telecom sector, and that the "public response evidenced much dissatisfaction and almost universal disapproval with the current telecom monopoly and support for an open and competitive telecom environment."

The Prime Minister told GT&T that the project team in his ministry is nearing completion of a Draft National Telecommunications Policy which will shortly be presented to the company for negotiations and that the Government looks forward to discussing the revised draft in pursuit of its intention to negotiate the reform of the telecommunications sector in good faith.

"Government will be tough and firm and well resourced but fair; focussing on positioning Guyana so that Guyanese could obtain the greatest benefits from this leading sector of the new economy," he said.

Mr. Hinds also reiterated that while there is no role for the Government under the present laws in addressing the necessary rebalancing of tariffs, there will be opportunities to address this question within the broader context of negotiations with GT&T about the reform of the sector, and this was one more reason why GT&T should enter into discussions with the Government "forthwith and without preconditions."