The Public Utilities Commis-sion (PUC) has written to both Digicel Guyana and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Limited reminding the two companies of the per-second billing that was ordered.
In a letter to the CEOs of the two companies, Secretary of the PUC Vidiahar Persaud reminded them of their obligations under Order No. 1 that the PUC made in December and which took effect from Friday February 16, 2007. That Order specifically fixed the floor and ceiling rates at $7.00 per minute and $32.00 per second respectively.
When contacted by this newspaper yesterday, Persaud said that the PUC had received word that one of the companies was not charging rates by the second as it is mandated by the PUC Order.
Assistant Public Relations Officer at GT&T Oscar P. Clarke said that the company had no comment on the issuing of the letter by the PUC. But he said that since courtesy dictates that the company should respond to the PUC directly, this is what the company will do.
In the letter Persaud said “We trust that your respective companies are in compliance with the Order and with respect to the effective date as herein before stated.”
CEO of Digicel Tim Bahrani said in a comment to this newspaper that Digicel welcomed the ruling of the PUC to create upper and lower rates in the Guyanese market and said that this has opened up the market to true competition and opportunities to serve the customers what they want. “Digicel in its continuous effort to ensure customer satisfaction complied with the PUC ruling from day one; true per second billing is being applied to all National calls.
This means that if a person makes a call for 3 seconds that is what he or she pays for. It is unfortunate that we cannot apply the same for international calls since we depend on GT&T for that service and we are billed on a per minute basis by them,” Bahrani said.
Chairman of the PUC Ret. Justice Prem Persaud said last month that based on what feedback the PUC receives from all relevant parties, the rates could be adjusted accordingly.
He had said that the utilities were ordered to submit monthly information, including the number of subscribers and details of any packages, plans or group rates, in order that the Commission might assess the impact of these new rates.
