A SCHEDULE of meetings has been agreed to by government and telecommunication service providers Digicel and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) to facilitate bilateral negotiations on liberalisation, including demonopolisation.

In keeping with that schedule, the parties will thus be meeting on Monday, Presidential Advisor on Governance, Ms Gail Teixeira, informed the media yesterday when she represented Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon at the weekly post-Cabinet press conference.
Government recently signalled its desire to the National Assembly not to pursue the second reading of the Telecommunication Amendment Bill (2012) and the Public Utility Commission’s Amendment Bill (2012), as the parties have heightened their engagements on reform in the sector.
For Digicel, it is about the de-monopolisation to remove the monopolistic feature on international calls, Dr. Luncheon had told reporters at a recent post-cabinet briefing.
“What Digicel has essentially said, and we do agree on that point, is that the monopoly has been indeed a brake on our economic development and on the development in the sector itself. So we see eye to eye on that. So other than smaller matters, that’s their most important beef,” he said.
In addition, he pointed out that issues with GT&T are most notably contractual disputes. He said there has, since 1990, been a contract that must be honoured.
Nevertheless, he said that GT&T has indicated its willingness to discuss these issues with stakeholders to plan for liberalisation, including the deemed monopolisation.