The Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago’s (TSTT) avoided the embarrassing prospect of one of the country’s largest state companies being unlicensed, and therefore, technically, an illegal operation, by last night reaching an agreement on their concession with the Telecommunications Authority of T&T (TATT).
TSTT chairman Emile Elias had earlier in the day accused TATT of acting “illegally” as TSTT had been left without a licence on Tuesday night until yesterday afternoon. He said he and TSTT’s staff were disappointed in the way TATT acted in the process of the renewal of its licence.
He added: “TATT was established by the Government by an Act of Parliament and I think it has lost its way. TATT seems to have forgotten the reason for their existence and that is to serve the best interest of the people of T&T.
He asked: “These are the same people who own the 51 per cent of TSTT whose interests are being served by the illegal behaviour of TATT? Can they claim ignorance of the very law by which they are governed? TATT is supposed to serve the people of T&T.”
Elias was speaking to the media yesterday at TSTT’s head office, Port-of-Spain. He said a major disaster had been averted as the Minister of Public Administration, Randall Mitchell, and the Minster of Public Utilities, Ancil Antoine, had intervened before the licence expired on Tuesday night.
The concessionaire, the government, has a 51 per cent stake in the company. It’s representative, minister Randall Mitchell, only put pen to paper with the licensing agent late yesterday. According to TSTT’s documents provided, it has been engaging TATT since last March on the process to be followed for its licence to be approved.
Breach of the Act
According to the documents, TSTT objected to the unilateral imposition of amended terms in breach of the Telecommunications Act and lack of consultation. Elias added: “As of midnight last night TSTT had no licence to operate in any of its five business segments for which we have licences.
“After the close of business on December 22, 2015, TSTT received the draft contract from TATT. They pointed out we had to sign the agreement by Tuesday night.
“We had four working days to analyse the document. On Sunday 27 a draft response to TATT’s amended contract was prepared. We responded to TATT and also the minister responsible for TATT which is the Minister of Public Administration.
“I received the assurance from the line minister of TATT that we would be issued the approval today. While that approval is not in our hands, we have received verbal communications through our CEO that we should have something in our hands within the next hour or two.
“This means the renewal of our licence will be under similar conditions as the one in our hands,” Elias added.
Economic future
“We want to grow TSTT’s revenue. We want to market our products and hope to have our five licences this afternoon,” he added. He also asked the Government to withdraw immediately the Request for Proposal (RFP) for a third mobile operator.
“It is the opinion of TSTT this sector is saturated and it is a totally unnecessary overlap to introduce a third mobile operator. This is not logical. We want the Government to review this and withdraw the RFP and not make an award for a third mobile operator in a saturated market,” Elias added.
During the question and answer session with the media, he was asked about TSTT’s operations during the current recession and its financial performance. He said: “Part of the changes would require an investment that could be between $600 million and $1.5 billion.
“TATT said these things would be done in a specific time or we would face a $10 million fine. TATT needs a bush bath. TATT needs to rethink the reason for their existence.” He said he thought long and hard about TATT’s motives and what it was doing to TSTT.
“There needs to be a review at the political level of the constitution of TATT... the laws that govern them and the way they have been behaving in the technological development of the country. Are there other forces at work that are not in the best interests of T&T?” he asked.