THE long-awaited and much-anticipated Telecommunications Bills should be laid before the National Assembly soon.Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams told reporters Wednesday that the legislation is currently with the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

“We are hoping to have the PUC Bill and the Telecoms Bill laid soon. We should take it to the next Cabinet, and hope to get it to Parliament shortly after,” Williams said.

Minister of Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes in April, said that the legislation would be taken to the National Assembly before the end of this month.

SEVERAL CALLS
Over the years, there have been several calls from Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), and Irish company Digicel for the passage of the legislation to liberalise the telecommunications market.

The APNU+AFC coalition, as part of its Manifesto, leading up to the May 11, 2015 national elections, had promised to free-up the telecommunications sector within its first 100 days of entering office. Unfortunately, the liberalisation of the sector is yet to materialised.

The government has also been called upon by the Private Sector to open up the market, so that Guyanese could be exposed to competition and better telecommunications services.

In a statement to the media, the PSC said, “The fact is that Guyana’s economic advancement and growth is being seriously handicapped by the country’s limited access to bandwidth and affordable high-speed connectivity. The PSC looks forward to a Telecommunications Bill that will ensure unrestricted and unfettered competition by our telecommunications providers.”

Additionally, the Private Sector body said the absence of affordable high-speed connectivity has left Guyana behind the rest of the world.

“It prevents domestic and international investment in the creative innovation of ICT services, and the employment and productivity that this investment will produce in every sector of the economy,” the private sector said.

Earlier this month, both telecommunications companies, GTT and Digicel, announced that they are now offering 4G service to all customers. The government has approved licences, and allocated spectrum to both companies to offer 4G services. By so doing, customers are now able to receive increased data speeds to live-stream and upload audio and video, as well as still images.

“Finally, we will bring you 4G. I know that you’ve waited a long time, and I am as happy as you to say that we have received approval from the government,” said GTT’s CEO, Justin Nedd.

“Our 4G mobile network will enable you to connect to the Internet much faster than ever before, whether to browse, watch videos or movies, download music or shop Online. All Smart phones sold by GTT are ready to experience the faster speeds,” Nedd added.

Similarly, Digicel’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Kelly said he looks forward to a liberalized sector. He noted that that development would bring many benefits to Digicel customers here, including cheaper international calls, Internet use in the home, and introduction of landline service.

It should be noted that the previous PPP/C government had talked about liberalising the sector for a number of years.

The Telecommunications Bill was introduced in 2011 and revised in 2013 during the 10th Parliament. Last year Cabinet approved the hiring of two legal consultants to fine-tune and make adjustments to the Bill.

The Telecommunications Bill is aimed at creating a competitive regime in the telecommunications sector. Once assented to it will provide for an open, liberalised and competitive sector.