Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 June 2000 — Page 8

PAGE A8

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, JUNE 9,2000

Caribbean region moves to liberalize telecom sector

By PETER RICHARDS liberalization of its telecommuni- obligations. The new people pro- sterling.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IPS)—The sole provider of telecommunications services in the region for more than a century, British telecom giant Cable and Wireless PLC is going to have to move over to make room for competition. Five regional governments have come together to form a telecommunications watchdog agency whose principal role will be to foster competition in the industry. The five—Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts-Nevis — formalized the accord establishing the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) at a summit in Grenada earlier this spring of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The eight-member OECS acknowledged the telecommunication industry was a vital tool for socioeconomic development and that liberalizing the sector would only benefit their economies and consumers. But not all eight are participating in ECTEL. OECS officials say that Antigua and Barbuda has decided to pursue its own path to

cation industry. In the case of Montserrat and the British Virgin Islands, their political status with Britain — both are dependent territories — prevent them from joining the ECTEL. ECTEL’s budget is yet to be finalized, but OECS officials say it is likely to be generated from fees collected from the sale of radio spectrum from the five participating countries. The OECS countries are hoping that demands for radio spectrum — electronic magnetic waves that cross boundaries — will increase as data broadcasting, video-con-ferences and other business communication tools come on-line. ECTEL will be headquartered in St. Lucia and will serve “to ensure that the telecommunications sectors in the five participating states have fair competition, consumer protection and investor confidence.” The members of ECTEL have also agreed to speed up new legislation setting the stage for the new liberalized telecommunication

sector.

“Those already in the business will need guidance for example in controlling anti-competitive behavior, universal service and access

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viding service will want toenter on the basis of fair play and transparency,” said a statement from the OECS Secretariat. St. Lucia’s Communications Minister Calixte George urged unity in the liberalization process. “If we are to succeed, we should never allow ourselves to be divided. We must be prepared to work with our brothers and sisters for convergence,” he remarked. The OECS countries have, over the years, been setting the stage for liberalizing their telecom sectors. In 1998, they established an OECS Telecommunications Reform Project, with a budget of $10.2 million. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Agency are providing $6 million between them, with the fi ve participating governments and grants accounting for the remain-

der.

The main objective of the project is to introduce competitive reforms in the telecommunication sector. The OECS Secretariat said that such reform “speaks to the ongoing negotiations with the currerit monopoly provider Cable and Wireless.” Cable and Wireless got a taste of its future in the Caribbean when it lost a court battle in Dominica last year against a local start-up. The court victory for Marpin Telecoms and Broadcasting has encouraged the other OECS member states to hasten die liberalization process. Their positions have been strengthened by the fact that, as in the case of St. Lucia, many of the current contracts with Cable and Wireless have either expired or are on the verge of doing so. St. Lucia’s George regards the expiration of the accords as a release “from bondage, not from purgatory, but from hell.” The sheer muscle of the company has not been easy for regional territories to contend with. Cable and Wireless has interests throughout Asia, the Caribbean, Britain and the United States. The comparty reported global profits totaling 3.5 billion pounds sterling for the fiscal year, which ended last March 31, up from the 1998-99 figure of 908 million pounds ster-

ling.

Global revenue for the British telecom giant stood at 9.2 billion pounds sterling up to March 31 this year, a 16 percent increase over the 1998-99 figure of 7.9 billion pounds

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And it did not get this big by just simply rolling over for the competition. This company witt continue “to be committed to the customers not only in Dominica* but throughout the region,” says Carl Roberts, a Cable and Wireless manager in Dominica, who added the company is undaunted

by the court ruling.

“Our pledge is to continue t6 work with the governments and people of the region,” the company says in “A Caribbean Story, Cable and Wireless,” a brochurtj. “The goal of Cable and Wireless is to be partners with governments, to help to grow the region^ economies, while providing a variety of basic and sophisticated phone services to more people around the region,” it added. 11 The company has produced ^ video entitled “In Touch With You” in which it demonstrates how Cable and Wireless has made a significant contribution to the lives, of the people in the Eastern Caribbean, in areas such as health, infrastructure development and

sports.

Further, it says, its commitment to the region is demonstrated through the investment of more than $1 billion over the past five years and plans to do the same over the next five. In addition, the company says it has been spending millions of dollars annually to train its staff as well as contributing to the development of West Indies cricket. Prior to a meeting of OEC$ ministers responsible for telecommunications and their negotiators in Dominica last year. Cable and Wireless issued a fact sheet ih which it said it was “anxious to change” and was looking forward to working with the government to implement new pricing structures. The company also offered incentive packages on its Internet services. The OECS Telecommunications Reform Project is now developing a training program t6 improve the information skills olf the member territories: Thb training program is considered vital to, OECS governments who regard information skills as being necessary to “attract investment froih foreign companies wanting to outsource information processing tasks and to support local firms needing to implement new technologies to increase competitive-

ness.”

They are aware that advanced technologies are driving the convergence of office equipment and telecommunications, blurring the traditional distinctions between data processing and telecommunications and enabling new valueadded services, which the OECS countries say they want to take full advantage of, as companies spend billions of dollars to network their products. > Last month, several issues critical to a liberalized telecom industry, such as inter-connection, tariffs and pricing, universal service and numbering, were discussed at a major conference of stakehold-

ers.

American Consultant Marthv Taschdjian, addressing the conference on the “United States Experience in Inter-Connection,” has recommended the OECS regulators set the price of “call termination," where a subscriber to one provider can speak to those who subscribe to other providers. Taschdjian, a former senior official who worked with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and. Bell Atlantic, believes it would prevent a situation where the incumbent “will want to entrench its dominance of the “call origination” market by denying or over-pricing call termination to competitors.” Donnie De Freitas, project manager of the OECS Telecommunications Reform Project, says the draft legislation for the member countries provides for universal service to include public voice telephone, Internet access, and telecommunications services for schools, hospitals and the di sabled He says the emphasis will be on ensuring that “as wide a range pf people as possible share in the freedom to communicate by haying access to efficient and modem telecommunications at an affordable cost.”