Telecommunications Minister Dr Edmond Mansoor is calling on the island’s three telecommunications providers to sit down for talks in order to find a solution on the issue of congestion across networks.
The minister of Information, Broadcasting, Telecommunications, Science and Technology has made the call in the wake of recent accusations being traded between APUA and Digicel regarding the serious congestion on the interconnection links between APUA and Digicel.
The minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister pointed the finger at “talk as you like” type plans for increasing the congestion.
“With the introduction of liberal ‘talk away’ plans by both Digicel and LIME, the degree of congestion across all the networks has increased four-fold,” Mansoor said.
“What this in effect means is that customers of one mobile carrier will have to compete for space on the already congested networks to be able to communicate with someone who is a customer of a competing mobile carrier.
“This is being further exacerbated by competing mobile phone traffic by cruise ship visitors as well as long stay visitors,” he added.
The minister revealed that in at least two meetings called by his ministry to seek a solution to the matter, little progress has been made, so he is now calling on the three providers to sit down together and resolve the matter.
(More in today’s Daily OBSERVER)
i think we need to get away from the old way of doing things. the sector needs to be totally liberalised . apua sees that it cannot compete in the telephone sector so why not free up the space needed. in this hard guava crop time as u can see competition brings savings to the consumer and more business to the providers who in return would pay their taxes which spins off into the economy
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Fix the law and improve competition on a fair playing field. Don’t fix the law and the battles and bullying will continue. I would like to see number portability and not be held hostage by the phone compaines to keep my number. If my number could move with me then I would be the factor in choosing a phone company. Now I live with the fear that if I change I now have to notify everyone that my number has changed. I am being held hostage by the phone companies.
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How about increasing the capacity on the network?
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It is only through up-to-date laws, regulations and an independent regulator will such issued be avoided or satisfactorily resolved. For some reason the Government seems to think you can operate a modern competitive telecoms sector, with laws that pre-date the invention of the mobile phone with all oversight left at the discretion of the Minister of “good will” of the operators. In a civilized operating environment, It is laws and regulations that should prescribe the interconnect and pricing regime between operators. There should be dispute resolution procedures that determine what actions operators obliged take when there are inevitable disagreements so that all stakeholders (most importantly consumers) are protected. The notion that the only recourse available to the Minister responsible for implementing a regulatory framework is to suggest that the operators “talk” is laughable.
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I expect that Dr. Mansoor, in a typically Antiguan fashion, will conduct these negations by cellphone. Unfortunately, since the Antiguan cellphone network is congested, and frequently unusable, he will need to have an offshore conference, paid for by the Antiguan people in Hawaii or Istanbul.
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