Framework to liberalize telecoms sector complete

After more than two years of engagements with stakeholders to foster growth in the local telecommunications sector, authorities have unveiled a draft legal framework.

The document was discussed among stakeholders yesterday, a day before Bills are tabled in the National Assembly for a new Telecommunications Act and accompanying amendments to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Act to open, liberialise and make the telecommunications sector more competitive.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who will be tabling the Bills today in the National Assembly, explained that after the legislation is tabled, a series of debates will follow before they are sent to special select committee.

“I want to emphasise that the government’s aim here is to create an open telecoms sector so that it could be very lively,” he said.

Optimism is high that the new telecommunications legal regime will attract new market entrants and investors and offer Guyanese greater choice, cheaper prices and higher quality telecommunication services.

The new regime will consist of five sets of regulations that synchronise with the Telecommunications and Public Utilities Acts and, at the time of its enactment, new licences will be granted to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company, Digicel and some existing Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Additionally, the Minister responsible for Telecommunications will hold regulatory responsibility over the sector while a director will head a new agency that will incorporate the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU).

Janis Brennan and Peter Stern were the two consultants from Foley Hoag, the international law firm that partnered with the Guyana Government on the drafting of the framework. They acknowledged Guyana’s efforts to liberalise the local telecommunications sector.

“The underlying goal of this telecom law reform is Guyana’s full participation in an information society. That requires citizens to have easily accessible, affordable and ubiquitous consistent access to telecommunication services…This type of reform process that underlies achievements of the Government’s goals has been completed or actively underway in almost every country of the world including in the Caribbean,” Brennan said.

She acknowledged early efforts by Guyana to reform the sector, beginning with the Telecommunications Act and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Act that were brought into law in 1990 simultaneously with the establishment of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company under an 80-20 shareholding with ATN.

The telephone company was at that time the exclusive franchise holder and inevitably held a monopoly on all other telecommunications network and services including international telecommunications