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Dean pointed out that the Digicel position remains the same, in that the company still believes in a liberalized market, which would give players therein opportunity to compete and see what competition can bring to the sector.
He explained that Digicel does not believe it should go from one extreme — from a monopoly — into a heavily regulated market; but rather that operators should be given opportunities to compete and drive innovation and development through competition.
Moreover, Dean said, Digicel believes that all players in the market should be subject to the same terms and conditions. As such, the company hopes that whatever legislation is eventually enacted would not give preferential or priority treatment to any one particular party in terms of agreements that have been made with the government.
He said the company has been discussing with the government over a period of time, and has seen the revised legislation from both the various political parties, which are broadly in line with each other, with few changes.
Dean added that while the company has received assurances that there will be liberalization, the key thing for the company is to have a timetable by which those changes may be effected; because, without that, they are talking with no end date in mind.
Dean said: “So, for us, the critical thing is for us to have a timetable for an end date, so that the players in the market have some certainty as to when liberalization can happen for future plans. We have been consulted for 2 to 3 year periods with government and various independent consultants in the process. We have been able to feedback, but we are not going to get a legislation that we wanted all along. But, broadly, we are happy with the legislation. We think the legislation enacted should allow the period where less competition can be derived from a domestic point of view. We have seen what happened, the results competition was able to derive. We don’t see it any different from the international sector that would open up in post-liberalization.”
He pointed out that Digicel does not see anything different would happen in Guyana with legislation, but without a time-table in mind, there is no specified time.
Dean said that negotiations started since 1991 between Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) and the Government, which had intended to liberalise the market; and that since Digicel came into the Guyana market, the domestic rate has decreased by 50%, and the company was still able to exist with that rate; but with liberalization, all the parties can benefit.
Meanwhile, giving an update of Digicel’s 2012 achievements, Dean said that site launches took place at Omai, and the company is working to have a site up and working in La Parfait Harmonie.
He said the company has been looking to provide extra coverage at all the new residential areas, like Eccles and some other areas on the East Bank Demerara as well.
Dean noted that another out-of-town cellular site is expected to be launched linking Micobie and Tumatumari, but Digicel is hoping to have coverage from 58 Miles right into Mahdia.
He said there are some areas in the trail where the company has spots without service, but that he expects to have service in Mahdia in January.
He added that the company had a lot of network upgrades in 2012, and has also completed its upgrades before the festive season. He noted that, in the process, customers may have suffered a bit in terms of work that was ongoing, but he thanked them for their patience.
Dean said that Digicel Guyana did upgrade several cell stores, the most recent being at Grove, East Bank Demerara. Stores at Kwakwani and Mabaruma also received ugrades; but between January and March 2013, all Digicel stores would have been upgraded countrywide.
