New Legislation To Treat Unfair Competition Within OECS

ROSEAU, Dominica, March 29, 2017 (CMC) – The Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) says the new Electronic Communication Bill will address unfair competition in the telecommunication sector within the sub-region.

Addressing civil society groups, yesterday, as part of the ECTEL series of road shows, General Counsel Deborah Bowers, said the existing Telecommunications Act does not address competition in a changing environment.

“So we have now got provisions in our bill to address competition. ECTEL is mandated to ensure an open entry and to ensure there’s competition in the market whereever possible.

“So we have now put in regulations to address competition because, in the islands, we do not have competition provisions in our member states. So the commission will now be under an obligation to ensure that there is no anti-competitive conduct taking place within the telecom sector,” she noted.

She said it would also be under an obligation to carry out a market analysis every three years and also to monitor the market to ensure persons with a significant share do not “abuse their market share”.

She said the new legislation would also take into account a new environment because “we are no longer just dealing with telephones, (and) we are certainly dealing with the world wide web.

“Our legislation needs to embrace mergers and acquisitions, it needs to embrace competition, consumer protection, number portability amongst other things. There is a big gap between what we have now, regulating our sector, which is the Telecommunications Act, and what we really need.”

She said that the ECTEL members – Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts-Nevis and Dominica – are committed to net neutrality.

“We are small island states and we want our consumers to be able to access the internet (and) that’s what we are concerned about. We are small and the world does not know where we are, or who we are, but we need to ensure that we are in contact with the world at large,” she said.

Meanwhile, ECTEL managing director, Embert Charles, says draft legislation to deal with roaming is now being completed.

“From our vantage point, where we sit, roaming is still a major issue, especially for small businesses. People don’t stop doing business when they travel, and whereas consumers are finding ways to address the issue of high roaming rates by using the Wi-Fi platforms available …there are cases when this is not possible,” he added.

Charles said that there will soon be public consultation on the new draft roaming legislation “which will, in effect, bring roaming rates as close as possible to zero”.

“So it is roam like you home. So there will be no material difference in your telecommunication services, both data and voice, when you are in St. Vincent, as opposed to when you are in Dominica,” he added.