Regional utility regulators urged to create conditions for more liberalized telecoms sector

Regional legislators and regulators need to act collaboratively and with greater haste to better position Caribbean countries to remove their traditional sectors from within monopoly structures and into a more competitive environment, Barbados Minister of Commerce and Industry Haynesley Benn told the Ninth Annual Conference of the Organization of Caribbean Utility Regulators (OCUR).

Benn told the conference that collaborative discourses between lawmakers and regulators were likely to yield more positive results in the search for solutions to problems associated with the strengthening of the regulatory networks that enhance the efficiency and security of critical sectors including water, electricity and telecommunications. With regard to the telecommunications sector, Benn said that it was important that regional regulatory regimes be established to promote greater competition.

“Greater diversification of our resource base and new entrants supplying public services will lead to a higher quality of our services and the improved welfare of consumers,” Benn said.

“In this age where telecommunications has provided opportunities to further economic development, we have witnessed how liberalization has helped to lower prices and particular services, such as international calling, mobile communications and internet accessibility. In the past, cost-based regulation of telecommunications sometimes led to undue capital investment and did not always foster innovation in the sector. Barbados and several other countries in the region have therefore moved to incentive-based regulation,” the minister said. Benn opined that the absence of a balance between competition and investment in infrastructure and regulation could give rise to a disincentive for service providers to invest in new telecommunications infrastructure and services.