TT dropped telecom ball

Brewer said Digicel will be operating in 22 Caribbean countries by the end of 2006 and TT could have been the envy of its Caribbean neighbours four years ago with the region’s first liberalised telecom market. However, Brewer lamented, talks between Digicel Group CEO Denis O’Brien and the then UNC government did not bear fruit.

He said notwithstanding the ongoing differences between Digicel and TSTT on the issue of interconnection, significant progress has been made towards liberalising the local telecom market under the incumbent PNM administration.

Brewer indicated that Public Administration and Information Minister Dr Lenny Saith has been pivotal in the successes witnessed thus far in the local telecom arena and he hoped that Saith would continue to play an integral role in driving the telecom liberalisation process forward. Saith was appointed Energy Minister earlier this month following the resignation of Eric Williams after bribery charges were made against him (Williams).

Brewer said he was uncertain why Government continued to maintain a 51 percent shareholding in TSTT when other Caribbean governments appear to be moving towards divesting their holdings in state telecom companies in their jurisdictions but he was not questioning Government’s policy. Jamaican Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology Phillip Paulwell suggested last week that governments should divest their holdings in state telecom companies in order to better facilitate telecom liberalisation. Saith and Minister in the Ministry of Finance Christine Sahadeo have said Government has no plans to divest its holdings in TSTT.

Sahadeo indicated that divestment is a complex process and Government reviews its divestment portfolio on a regular basis.