Govt Seeks Legal Advice against Telecom Firms over Lack of Internet Service
The government is seeking legal advice from the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) over the unwillingness of telecom firms to provide internet access to some regions of Dominica. This was revealed by Senator Oscar George, Minister of State for Telecommunications and Broadcasting.
According to Honourable George, it is painful that the telecom operators in Dominica have failed to restore internet connectivity to some remote areas of the island since the disruptions caused by Hurricane Maria three years ago; while they also charge arbitrary rates since the rates in one region of Dominica is different from another. He noted that the licenses granted to the operators provide that they must provide internet service to all regions of the island and at equal rates to all subscribers.
The minister of state disclosed that some telecom providers have been dragging their feet about restoring internet connectivity to disconnected areas because they estimated that the return-on-investments may not be worth it. He said this is “unacceptable” and must be questioned. He stated that their obligation under their operation licence is to cover the entire island as well as charge non-discriminatary rates.
Also another obligation is that they do not discriminate and what I mean by that is, the price you charge a customer on the west coast for broadband should not differ to what you charge someone on the east coast. They may say it costs more to get to the east coast because of the terrain and that’s what the license stipulates.
Oscar George, Minister of State for Telecommunications and Broadcasting.
He said it is not only data tarrifs that will be reviewed in the light of the expected recommendations from ECTEL and NTRC, but cellphone call rates as well. He lamented a situation where a customer subscribes for a 7-day data plan and it gets exhausted in 3-4 days. He said this problem will be addressed by the recommendations to come forth from the telecom regulators, and that necessary legislation may be ammended to accommodate these recommendations.
“The mobile data tariffs are very important,” he said. “You activate a seven day plan and after four days your data has been exhausted and that is a serious concern. I’m happy to say that the NTRC did a comprehensive study and one of the recommendations coming from that study is to review the current tariff regulations and we will seek to amend legislations to make it a fairer rate for our customers.”
In a related development, the minister of state made it clear that Dominica will not be implementing the famed 5G network anytime soon, and that the telecom operators in the country have also expressed their unwillingness to install the network.
“I have spoken to all the operators…and I can say that none of the operators, currently in Dominica, are willing to head into 5G,” he revealed.
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