Enforcement of Telecoms Bill 2016 still being ironed out

– but Minister promises Bill will bring end to Internet, phone woes

By Jarryl Bryan

With regular complaints being voiced about utility services in Guyana, Government passed the Telecommunication Act of 2016. Over a year later, chinks are still being ironed out, but Government is optimistic that the bill will be enforced and used to bring about change.
At a recent engagement with the press, Public Telecommunications Minister Cathy Hughes stressed that she was working as fast as possible to ensure the bill is enforced. But she noted that it will take some more time before Guyanese can feel the benefits of a liberalised sector.
Responding to questions about the continually poor internet service plaguing some Guyanese, Head of the Industry and Innovation Unit of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications, Lance Hinds, spoke about the Ministry’s plans.
“The Public Utilities Commission has a mandate to oversee the service provider in terms of speed, in terms of coverage. In the new legislation, we have a specific provision (and) regulations for quality of service,” Hinds related.

“One of the things we can do on that in far more detail is to ensure we can monitor their performance; compare what our mechanisms are versus what the public is experiencing. So when the new legislation comes into being, we’re going to do a lot better than we are (doing) at the moment,” Hinds promised.
In the meantime, however, he noted that the PUC would continue to exercise its mandate. There is a snag in this proposal, however, with Minister Hughes admitting that she did not have a specific date by which to introduce the proposed legislation. She noted that there are other works.
“I can’t say, unfortunately. We’re working as fast as we can. Just last week, I was able to bring a cabinet memo and got approval to hire a core staff of individuals who will start to design and implement the Telecommunications Agency,” she said. “So, before we start the process of actually hiring the permanent staff and everything that will go with it, we certainly have the possibility of hiring people who will start to put things in place.” She expressed hope that the legislation could come on stream by 2018.
Hughes also pointed to negotiations with the Guyana Telephone Telegraph Company (GTT) and Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN). “Those discussions have been going very well. I have had conversations with both the international owners and the local company. And it’s just the time to go through all that detail. I had hoped to complete this before, and we haven’t. But I am going as fast as possible.”
Hinds said that issues regarding poor landline service are also expected to be addressed by the legislation. He noted that residents who are at the mercy of telephone providers and are without service can expect some relief.
“We have an exclusive licensee, so you run into these challenges in terms of areas that are not served as they should be. And one of the things that happen is that if you have a liberalised environment, because the competition is there, it then gets everyone up, because competition demands that.
“So one of the weaknesses of being in this monopoly is that some outlying and remote communities (will be affected). So the idea is that when there is this new environment and the legislation, that will ensure these things are covered,” he explained.

The Telecommunications Bill was first introduced in 2011. However, it was revised in 2013 before being sent to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee in the 10th Parliament.
When the legislation was taken before the National Assembly by the Government, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had called for the Bill to be sent to a Special Select Committee for further consideration, but Minister Hughes had argued that the Bill had been long promised, and was overdue.
The sector, she had emphasised, must be an open one, so that the country can progress and not lag behind its sister CARICOM countries and the rest of the world. The bill was passed in July, 2016.

PUC
As of March 2017, there have already been over a hundred complaints to the Public Utilities Commission for at least two utility companies — Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) and Guyana Power and Light (GPL). There were 94 complaints for GT&T. In an interview with this publication, the PUC’s Complaints Division Manager, Destra Bourne, had revealed that her agency resolved 44 of those GT&T complaints.
Explaining the work the Commission does in these instances, Bourne stated that the PUC would arrange rebates for customers who would have been paying for a service that was not working for a period of time.
“Once the service has been restored, they’re entitled to some amount of rebate for the period the service would not have been working. That’s for GT&T,” she had said.
Bourne had also encouraged customers who have been under siege from poor utility service and lack of resolution to bring the matter to the PUC’s attention. Bourne emphasised that the process was actually a simple one.
“The procedure is quite simple. If you have a problem with one of the utility (companies), your first step is to visit the utility and make a complaint in relation to your problem. That is giving the utility the first option to deal with whatever issue you have.
“If you are not satisfied with how they dealt with the problem of the resolution, then you can seek redress from the PUC. If the complaint has merit, we will follow that complaint up with the utility. If we notice that the utility would have made the correct decision based on the matter in front of us, we will advise you on that.”