Drawing Battle Lines

The Authority is saying in no uncertain terms that this will no longer be tolerated in 2006 now that TSTT, Irish telecom company Digicel and local telecom outfit Laqtel have all signed concession documents in accordance with the Telecommunications Act of 2001.

In an interview at TATT’s San Juan headquarters last week Tuesday, TATT executive director Dr John Prince said interconnection will be achieved in 2006, along with a new system of payment for broadcast spectrum.

Prince said the latest attempt by TSTT to stall the interconnection process was to inform TATT by letter that discussions which began in September 2005 prior to the signing of concession documents on December 30, 2005, "cannot be taken into consideration in terms of the Authority putting a time to interconnection."

"We are saying absolutely no. In no decent jurisdiction, could people get over a table, where they agree to meet even through a fiduciary arrangement. Those negotiations, as far as we are concerned began in September 2005," he stated.

Prince added that if those negotiations had no bearing on the time frame for interconnection, as argued by TSTT, the million dollar question was, Why did TSTT accept US$1.5 million from Digicel to purchase interconnection equipment?"

"Who is fooling whom?" he asked. "That means that you took the money in bad faith and you never intended to negotiate in good faith. As far as we are concerned, the actions of TSTT are indicative that the negotiations were properly and duly constituted and commenced at that time (September 2005). They will be taken into consideration as to when we are going to indicate an interconnection time," Prince said.

He added that the Authority has identified March or "anything earlier than that" as the time for interconnection to be achieved in TT.

"Interconnection will never go away until the people (TSTT, Digicel and Laqtel) connect. It will remain active until they interconnect. We make no bones in telling the nation that TSTT used every instrument available to them to delay the process. This will be discontinued from this month (January) on. We have said absolutely no," Prince said.

He added, "Our number one priority in 2006 is to complete the liberalisation process so that the public can be given a genuine opportunity to choose their service provider. A service provider must not be imposed on you because they are the only one."

Prince further indicated that now that TSTT, Digicel and Laqtel have all signed concession documents in accordance with the Telecom Act, "it is no longer an interconnection schedule dictated by TSTT, it is now an interconnection schedule dictated by the Authority within the provisions of the law."

He reiterated if TSTT or any other telecom service provider who signed a concession document with TATT to provide services to the population reneged on the agreement, "We are going to bring the full force of the law upon them."

"The Authority," he said, "will use every provision in the law and the Constitution to effect interconnection at the earliest possible time. You can write that in capital letters."

TSTT COST SUBSIDY

On reports that TSTT recently tried to increase its fixed phone rates, Prince said the company wrote TATT "under the guise" of seeking a cost subsidy for fixed phone rates.

He explained that the Telecom Act clearly indicates that the Authority must determine that there are legitimate grounds upon which this cost subsidy can be approved. Prince said TATT requested TSTT to provide the Authority with the relevant data so that it could determine whether to approve the cost subsidy or not.

"To date, we have not received that data and hence under the Act, it would be unlawful and illegal for TSTT to increase any rate — fixed phone or mobile — without the authorisation of the Authority. That is blowing hot air," he stated.

Prince explained that under the concession documents which were signed last December, consumers have now been empowered with rights which they can demand of their service providers. One of those rights is the right of consumers to refuse to pay increased charges for fixed line or mobile telephone services provided by a monopoly or dominant service provider, once these providers have not received approval to do so from TATT.

Asked whether telecom service providers may have been leaving consumers in the dark prior to the advent of concession documents, Prince replied, "There was nothing before that prescribed the rights of a consumer. The rights of a consumer was restricted to what they were allowed by the service providers. If somebody is writing a one-way contract, they’re going to stack it in favour of the person who is writing it. With a monopoly provider and you have a contract, it’s basically a take or leave document."

Prince indicated that while the entire interconnection issue was a frustrating experience last year, it was actually "a blessing in disguise" because TATT learned some invaluable lessons which would serve the Authority well should any similar situations arise in the future.

"Because of that interconnection issue, I deliberately began sending TATT staffers to acquire the requisite training to treat with those circumstances," Prince revealed.

The TATT executive director also disclosed that while Digicel and Laqtel are the first entrants into a liberalised local telecom sector, five more companies are now waiting in the wings to enter the market. Those companies will provide the public with more choice in the domain of international services.

He also said that TT had surpassed many other nations in terms of telecom liberalisation because "we did it all at the same time, we did not want to leave anything undone."

CCTT TAKEOVER

As far as the local cable market goes, Prince said a Bahamian company called Columbus has now taken over the operations formerly undertaken by the Cable Company of TT (CCTT). He explained that through the convergence of technology, Columbus provides voice, data and fixed line services to its customers. Columbus is also serving some 200 to 300 Internet customers formerly served by CCTT.

Given the large and ever increasing number of radio and television stations in TT, can the spectrum handle this increased volume of traffic? The short answer from the TATT executive director is yes. "We have a band plan. We are not going to give spectrum which we know we can’t handle. The handling capacity is there," Prince stated.

PEPPERCORN

RATES FOR SPECTRUM

Explaining that the spectrum "is totally free in the atmosphere", Prince said the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) allocates parts of the spectrum to individual countries and tells them what kinds of services they can use those parts of the spectrum for. TT is located in region number two of the spectrum along with North America.

Prince said radio and television stations have paid peppercorn rates for spectrum space in the past, which were payment based on their revenue.

This will no longer be so because the spectrum, he said, "is a very, very valuable resource." "Now the system of spectrum payment has changed from a percentage of revenue (of the radio or television station) to the person paying the economic value of the spectrum," he said.

Simply put, if a section of the spectrum costs $100 per MHZ then all entities occupying that space will pay a single flat rate. "It will not be some paying more or less. We can accommodate what we have now and maybe a few more," Prince said. He added that unlike in the past, the nation will no longer be called upon to subsidise commercial arrangements where these entities are concerned.

CNMG CONCESSION

Asked when the Caribbean News Media Group (CNMG), which was formed to replace the National Broadcasting Network (NBN), would receive their concession to open their television station, Prince said CNMG’s application was now before TATT. "They will be treated very fairly, transparently and absolutely non-discriminatory," he said. Prince also disclosed that live parliamentary broadcasts will soon become a reality. Stating that it is difficult to disassociate telecommunications from information communications technology (ICT), Prince said the bigger picture in all this is a long-term strategy to develop a local ICT industry that will place the operations of the public sector and private sector on the cutting edge. "We are dabbling in telecommunications so we cannot avoid treating with ICT," Prince said.

He explained that while TATT will not be directly involved in initiatives such as tele-health or e-commerce, providing the infrastructure to accommodate the technological traffic that will flow through these initiatives falls to the Authority.

Prince added that unless telecommunications in TT become ubiquitous, "it does not improve human welfare."

Disclosing that talks have been ongoing to establish universal telecommunications service throughout the Caribbean, Prince said TATT proposes to divide TT into regions and study ways to improve the Digital Access Index (DAI) of each region, with a view to improving TT’s overall DAI of 53. He added that this DAI is a bit behind those of other Caribbean nations and TT may host regional telecom discussions sometime in 2007.