Digicel, Laqtel end TSTT monopoly

The move effectively marks the beginning of the end of TSTT’s prized monopoly of the sector, and in making this announcement at a news conference at the authority’s San Juan headquarters yesterday, TATT chairman Dr Ralph Henry also disclosed that the sector will be further liberalised very shortly, when TATT recommends to Public Administration and Information Minister Dr Lenny Saith that concessions be granted to five companies. These concessions would provide public international telecommunications and three companies to provide wired cable television services (including fixed broadband services). Recalling the chronology of events leading to yesterday’s announcement, Henry said five companies (Digicel, Laqtel, Cingular, NatTel and Telecom Caribe) met the authority’s pre-qualification phase and proceeded to an auction phase which was conducted online with the assistance of independent consultant Market Design Inc (MDI) of Washington DC.

However of these five, only Digicel and Laqtel saw the auction through to the end. Digicel bought out Cingular’s Caribbean operations in a multi-million dollar deal on Wednesday, while NatTel and Telecom Caribe dropped out.

Henry said next week the TATT will recommend to Saith that concessions be given to Digicel and Laqtel to provide cellular telephone services to the population.

The TATT chairman said Saith will have to take the recommendations to Cabinet and while he had no idea when Cabinet would give its seal of approval to the recommendations, he was optimistic that both Digicel and Laqtel would be providing cellular phone services to the citizenry before year’s end.

Henry gave the assurance that yesterday’s auction was done in a "fair, transparent and non-discriminatory manner." He said he saw no basis for any legal challenges arising from yesterday’s events.

MDI president Dr Lawrence Ausubal endorsed Henry’s views and added that online auctions were "the wave of the future" and could be used successfully to ensure transparency in public procurement processes.

Government had laid a Green Paper on Public Procurement Reform in Parliament. the document is now out for public comment and Minister in the Ministry of Finance Christine Sahadeo has expressed optimism that it would soon be converted to a White Paper.