(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says the Government will be inviting proposals for a third mobile operator before the end of the year. She said it was in keeping with the Government’s policy to deepen the competitive environment. Bmobile, the mobile division of Telecommunications Services of T&T (TSTT) and its rival Digicel are the only two cellular service providers on the market to date. In May 2008, TSTT and Digicel signed an interconnection agreement after months of wrangling. The two companies also agreed to share space on each other’s cellular towers. Persad-Bissessar was the guest of honour at the opening of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation’s (CTO) ninth forum held at the Grand Ballroom, Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre on Monday. The forum ends today. The theme was Broadband for the Networked Society. Persad-Bissessar said through TSTT’s line ministry, the Ministry of Public Utilities, the Government had mandated the expansion and development of broadband to ensure that citizens and businesses could get the most from a potentially limitless application which information communication technology (ICT) afforded. She said T&T was seeking to leverage the power of ICT and maximise its potential towards the social and economic development and to enhance competitiveness.
Persad-Bissessar said concurrent with those initiatives, the Government was actively involved in a review of the legislative framework, taking into consideration the conversion phenomena of technologies and services which opened up new development opportunities. She said the initiatives would not only improve the competitive environment but would create a new opportunity for different kinds of businesses, particularly for the development of local content. “In keeping with our policy to deepen the competitive environment, we will be inviting proposals for a third mobile operator before the end of this year,” she said. “TSTT, I’m sorry…Digicel…but competition is good and strong.” She recalled her days at university when she used a mainframe computer with punch cards and subsequently got a Commodore 64 computer which was introduced in 1982. “Look how far we’ve come in this age of technology,” she said. Chairman of the Mauritius Telecom, Dass Thomas; chief executive officer of the CTO Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah of Ghana and Public Utilities Minister Emmanuel George also delivered remarks.
