Preliminary discussions on the application by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) to introduce a $100 charge for persons using its National Directory Assistance (NDA) (092) Service began on Wednesday in the boardroom of the Public Utilities Commission on Church Street.
The meeting was attended by Chief Executive Officers of GT&T and Digicel respectively, Yog Mahadeo and Gregory Dean, other top executives of the phone companies, GT&T attorney Mark Waldron, Head of the Guyana Consumers Association Pat Dyal and representatives from the Consumer Movement in Guyana. It was chaired by head of the PUC, retired Justice Prem Persaud.
Dean said that his company had no objection to the application since it did not directly affect his company because the service cannot be accessed by Digicel customers. However he said it was up to the PUC to determine whether the agreement between GT&T and the Government was for the provision of free directory service regardless of how it is sourced.
He said based on the agreement and licence between the entities, the company is obligated to provide free directory service and believes that the facility should be free regardless of how it is accessed by the consumer – phone or printed directory.
In response, Mahadeo said that directory assistance was different from a printed directory as the hotline gives assistance to the directory.
Gene Evelyn, GT&T Director of Rate Marketing, said that when the company assumed operations in 1991 it did not offer the assistance facility but it had an obligation to provide a hard copy of the directory. He added that in 1998, based on the need for such a service, it was introduced and could be accessed by consumers dialling 092.
Readable Directory
Head of the Guyana Consumers Association Pat Dyal said that if the company wants to attach a cost to the calls then it must ensure that the directory is readable and can be used as an alternative to making a call. He said that the 2010 directory clearly did not fit into that category since it is unreadable and the font type and size led to confusion.
“Until GT&T provides a user-friendly directory which can be used as an alternative only then they can take up the position of rates,” Dyal said. He advocated a five-month freeze on the implementation of the rate.
Dean questioned how the company arrived at its $100 figure since if they were setting it based on benchmark pricing, the figure was greater than other prices in the Caribbean.
Waldron said that change in technology was one of the areas which resulted in high costs of operation for the company. He added that now more persons are calling 092, especially mobile users who may not be near a directory or there were persons who would call the operator because it was free and this meant that they did not have to find a hard copy.
Meanwhile Dyal questioned the cost of the operation since at the proposed rate it could lead to significant gains for the company. He further advised the company to wait 5-6 months which will give them time to reconstruct rates. However Mahadeo said that there was no call pattern and he expects that with the proposed rate, calls will decrease. He said that once a service is free, persons tend to abuse the system and put the directory in the corner.
He added that maintenance costs and salaries were some of the expenses the company hoped to offset by implementing a cost for operator services. In summarizing, he said that the move by the company was to keep providing assistance objectively by putting a value to that assistance.
Then Dean added that the increase in the numbers who access the call service might be attributed to overflows from other departments and might not be reflective of the true picture. He contended that GT&T needed to define its operation costs and if based on benchmark pricing then the countries whose pricing they have chosen to follow should be known.
The discussions will continue on August 30 at the PUC office.
On August 4, GT&T submitted its application to the regulatory body where it outlined the cost of having to produce the printed directory as well as provide the call service free of cost. In the document, the company said that there was no cost-recovery mechanism in place to address the costs of providing directory assistance and therefore the application was made. The proposed rate was between $100-$150 and an implementation date of September 1 was recommended. The company noted that demand will drop as soon as a price is instituted and will serve the public’s interest and help GT&T to manage its operations.
