The U.S. Virgin Islands-based ATN owns 80 per cent of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T).

According to Luncheon, "GT&T/ATN's attempt to hold to ransom the development of Guyana, the aspirations of its young people and the welfare of the citizens, is impossible to accept".

GT&T, through its parent company, ATN, is trying to get the IDB not to approve support for the important Information and Communications Technology (ICT) project for Guyana, for which the Government has vigorously lobbied.

The US$18M loan is intended to be used to expand and modernise Guyana's information technology sector and approval has been held up because of protest by the phone company.

"Guyana will join the rest of the world in harnessing the technology unhindered by the actions of GT&T/ATN," Luncheon told his regular post-Cabinet news conference yesterday at the Presidential Secretariat in Georgetown.

"Whatever develops, the administration is quite clear that it is the interest of the Guyanese people...that remains uppermost," he said.

Information and communications technology holds great promise for the world and specifically for Guyana, and the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) administration recognises this, Luncheon said.

It realises that Guyana possesses unique advantages that could be exploited to improve the economy, development and welfare of Guyana, he added.

"GT&T and ATN are trying to hold this action and the Government's intention to ransom, in essence, to hold back, to retard national progress."

According to the Cabinet Secretary, the administration has always taken GT&T/ATN challenges seriously, pointing out, "the agreement entered into between the Government of Guyana and ATN/GT&T (in 1991)...is the basis of the problem".

"The (ICT) project, were it to live up to its expectations and to provide for the administration's expectations being met...will have to see the resolution of the issue about monopoly by GT&T and ATN," he noted.

"Right now it is quite clear that in its exercise of the monopoly, ATN/GT&T has indeed dampened (the effort to develop) and were they to continue in the same spirit, (we) may well excuse any hopes that Guyana has of riding on the ICT highway and exploiting this possibility...," Luncheon said.

He noted that with the implementation of the project, the resolution of the monopoly issue had to be in place. "We have said unambiguously and we have said in concert with what the whole world is saying, that competition today is the name of the game and this monopoly (by GT&T) will be removed. We are honourable people and although we recognise some of the weaknesses...we have always been prepared to deal with the company to remove the monopoly," Luncheon stated.

He also pointed out that the ICT project "clearly understood and was crafted with an expectation that the monopoly would not continue..."

Chairman of ATN, Mr. Cornelius Prior on Monday vigorously defended the phone company's controversial position.

Prior said it is not "blackmail" nor "acting in bad faith" by ATN as President Bharrat Jagdeo and Prime Minister Sam Hinds have asserted, but rather protection of its contractual monopoly rights and its shareholders both in Guyana and the United States.

"We have to use every means possible...(and) we are not embarassed to say we are looking at protecting our interests. We have to defend our rights. We want to ensure fair competition and defend our rights negotiated in 1991," Prior stated at a news conference he hosted at GT&T headquarters in Georgetown.

Mr. Hinds last week said he was "astonished" that Prior would attempt to persuade the IDB against approving support for the ICT project for Guyana.

The project is intended to benefit thousands of ordinary Guyanese and Mr. Hinds indicated last Thursday that he was surprised because ATN was in an advanced stage of negotiations with the Government of Guyana for an "amicable settlement to end the company's monopoly over the telecommunication sector to introduce competition".

In a statement, the Prime Minister said he found it "utterly disbelievable" that the ATN Chairman would, in effect, "go behind the back of his own negotiating team to undermine the negotiations in an extraordinary display of bad faith by attempting to prevent IDB support for a vital telecommunications development which would bring Guyana into the 21st century and is a national priority of Government".

But Prior told reporters, "we are not blackmailing the Government. We are still here to negotiate (and this) idea that we are not willing to negotiate is nonsense."

He is calling for all the issues to be laid on the table and for these to be actively discussed between GT&T and the Government.

"We are interested in this (ITC) loan and this project (but) we are concerned that the Government wants to set up a new network for Internet which will compete with GT&T," Prior pointed out.