THE  National Assembly last evening sent the Telecommunications Bill and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Amendment Bill to a special select committee after their second reading for closer scrutiny before they are passed in early September. Yesterday’s sitting, in which no member of the parliamentary Opposition parties participated, was the first in what would have been the Parliamentary recess, which a Motion on August 4, 2011 deferred.
“It is fitting to forego the recess and pass [these Bills],”  Prime Minister Samuel Hinds said in the National Assembly.
He said provisions in the Telecommunications Bill have been written to create a new and comprehensive open regime that will be encouraging to existing participants and new entrants.
Hinds  said it will encourage ingenuity in people and allow for people to get value for money they spend on services.
“We need our service providers to be able to sustain themselves. This is the mandate of the PUC,” the Prime Minister said, as he alluded to the PUC Amendment Bill. The Telecommunications Bill is the raison d’кtre for the PUC Amendment Bill.
“The competition between the blue and the red certainly benefited our people. Each [of the cell phone service providers] reports 300,000 customers,” he said, as he makes reference to phone companies GT&T and Digicel.
“The step we are taking with that Bill is a big step to change the government monopoly regime to an open private enterprise regime,” Mr. Hinds explained.
The PM said that prior to the legislation being put in place, there was ambiguity in the telecommunications regime because of the differences between the British and American system that governed the old Guyana Telecommunications Corporation (GTC) and Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) respectively. He said the new Telecommunications Bill rectifies the ambiguity.
“The regime will be a benefit to all participants. This transformation of the legal regime of the telecoms sector is timely. Many of the countries [in the region] have made the transition,” the Prime Minister said.
He said the new regime is cognizant of international best practices but amended to suit Guyana’s needs. He said, too, that being prepared are model licences for services that may be catered for under the new law, and transition of the sector will create the framework for the expansion of services for unserved and underserved areas and will rationalize the growth of internet services.
Hinds said regularisation of the sector will serve as an incentive for further investment. He said the new legal framework and government effort are fully justified when the experiences of other countries are considered.
According to the PM, the passage of the legislation would create a telecommunications agency into which the NFMU will be subsumed. He said this agency will implement the minister’s directives for the sector and will monitor and enforce licences. He added that the PUC will be the economic regulator of the sector.
The new regime looks to the market place to set prices on the basis of supply and demand. But Mr. Hinds said there are provisions for positions of dominance and anti-competitive behaviour.
“It is a step of continuing growth and development. We will ensure [we manage] this transition so that there is no disruption,” he said.
Speaking on the legislation, Presidential Adviser on Empowerment Odinga Lumumba said monopoly is a very dangerous phenomenon, one that holds back progress in the world. He said that monopolies can cause price discrimination.
Minister of Home Affairs Mr. Clement Rohee, speaking on the Bill, said it must be recognized as a flagship Bill whose significance should not be underestimated. He said future generations should recognise the Bill’s importance since it is they who would be benefitting from its provisions.
“Guyana has come a very far way since the 1980s when the communications sector in this country was in a poor state from the point of view of infrastructure and services,” said Rohee.
He said the country reached a stage where it must embark on a transformation process because development in Guyana is moving at a rapid pace. “This Bill, in my view, will create a whole range of job opportunities in this country,” Rohee said.
There will emerge, he said, a new wave of entrepreneurs because of the Bill and its passage. It will bring great comfort to citizens, allowing them to communicate with relatives and friends in other countries. Rohee said, too, that the cost factor for communications will be greatly reduced. “We saw the great benefits derived from competition,” he said, alluding to price reductions that occurred with the entrance into the market of telecommunications giant, Digicel.
Attorney at Law Mr. Anil Nandlall said the Bill is long overdue and, for the first time in a massive way, legislation will bring fundamental regulation to a sector that was virtually unregulated. “That is why the Bill is of great significance,” he posited.
From the size of the Bill, Nandlall noted that it is a very complex piece of legislation. He said that it must be situated in a particular context, back in the years when less than 10 percent of the people had access to telecommunication services.
Nandlall said the ATN contract was described as a ‘sweetheart deal’ in an agreement shrouded in controversy. “Though we had massive changes taking place with the entry of GT&T, we had limitations…but after years and years of negotiations, the government was able to get a licence [for mobile services],” he said. “Ultimately, the price for telephone service dropped,” Nandlall added.
He said today, the position has changed dramatically with almost every adult Guyanese owning  a cell phone and over 80 percent of people on the coast have access to landlines and more and more have access to the internet. “What we do not have is the regulatory framework to control the technology,” Nandlall, a lawyer, argued.
He said after long consultations, everyone agreed that “we must regulate the environment to make it more liberal and modern and so the people of this country can enjoy a better service at a better price.”
“Critics of the bill may say it [places] a large amount of power in the Minister,” he said. But he said the legislative framework is in place in many jurisdictions in the Caribbean and all over the world.  “With the minister [invested] with the power, the sector functions more efficiently,” he said.
Nandlall said too that while market forces mainly determine prices, there will be mechanisms in place to manage any attempts to exploit a dominant position. He noted that the PUC offers a forum for the aggrieved to vent their grievance.
He said that while the Bill encourages expansion, it ensures the existing players in the system are placed at a disadvantage because of the new entrants. The Bill places Guyana on par with countries in the world making such technological changes, he said.
PPP General Secretary Mr. Donald Ramotar said “if we are to modernize our country, this Bill is indispensable to do so. For us to have the maximum from telecommunications, it is necessary for the sector to be liberalized.”
In a liberalised environment, Ramotar said “we could attract more investment and hence more jobs”.
He said this Bill will ensure that the environment is there, noting that it will help small and large operators compete.
Ramotar also alluded to the fact that IT resources are as valuable as the mineral resource of Guyana and hence it is wise to ensure that it is properly regulated and competitive.