With the ultimate goal to eliminate intra-CARICOM roaming charges, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) last Wednesday realised the first milestone towards achieving a single ICT Caribbean space, through the signing of the St. George’s Declaration, which is geared to facilitate the CARICOM Single ICT Space, and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, who is the regional head responsible for Science and Technology in the CARICOM Quasi-Cabinet, affixed his signature to the St. George’s Declaration, along with representatives from Cable & Wireless Communications (C&W) and Digicel, following agreements reached at the end of extensive collaborations that began in 2021 following political intervention in 2020.
Regional leaders had initially agreed to the creation of a single CARICOM ICT Space in 2014 having acknowledged the vital importance that information, and communication technology play in the social, cultural, and economic development of the region.
Digicel and C&W Parties will determine the scope of their new roaming rates under the St. George’s Declaration, which will differentiate in each country, with a targeted implementation timeframe into the second, and third quarters of this year.
Signing the St. George’s Declaration on behalf of C&W Communications was Vice-President South Caribbean, Kurleigh Prescod, who anticipates that “customers will …save up to 70% on their roaming charges” once the new charges are rolled out “by the end of March.”
He described the signing as an “excellent first step in establishing a tangible framework for the reduction in roaming charges across CARICOM” but cited the need for an “adaptive” approach as a region to also reduce the cost of doing business for service providers,” adding that this” will redound to the benefit of our citizens and communities.”
Prescod used the opportunity to call for “continued dialogue among stakeholders to move the ICT agenda forward, in particular, a forum where operators can collaborate with governments and regulators on current, and future technologies, as any framework that we adopt must be future proof for the changes associated with the industry”.
“If we are to continue on this journey to reduce roaming rates and charges, we also need our government partners to re-examine the level of license fees and universal service contributions and duties and taxes on network equipment and infrastructure to allow us to pass on further reductions to our valuable, and mutual subscribers, and nationals, and a relaxation in regulations especially as it relates to the contracting market for landline services across the region,” he charged.
He also contended that “in addition to the steep license and regulatory fees we pay, we are also now facing significant competition from over the top providers, who leverage the investments of these telecommunications operators, and charge to deliver many times the same content that we do using our networks without contributing a single cent to our taxation regulatory frameworks.”
Prescod went on: “….Every dollar these providers take from not only the telecommunications providers but from our local businesses such as newspapers and national broadcasters contribute to further erosion from the necessary funding our governments need to take care of our populations while putting further strain on employment in our markets.”
“Note, we are not asking for protectionism, all we ask for is parity and for the cost of regulation to be spread evenly across the providers of services to our communities,” he said.
Prescod also called for the adoption of “pro-investment policies that will improve the ease of doing business in the region” and opportunities to “explore more public/private/public partnerships that are designed to improve the lives of CARICOM citizens.”
Prime Minister Mitchell responded to the points raised by Prescod, stating that “regional governments are aware of and “understand their obligations in terms of rationalising and simplifying the ICT regulatory environment to improve the areas of doing business in the sector and to reduce operational cost.
“We know that (and) to this end we have already commissioned a study with the support of our brothers from the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), on the impact of all of the top services and the big tech within the regional ICT sector…,” he said.
“…We have also with the support of the International Telecommunications Union commissioned a study on the establishment of a single ICT regulator for CARICOM. We are moving,” he added.
PM Mitchell, who was the Minister of Telecommunications 37 years ago, when “Cable and Wireless was the total monopoly of all services of telecommunication in Grenada,” recalled that the Heads of governments at that time were in “strong opposition” to the idea of liberalising telecommunications in the region.
Referencing the “still unfolding global pandemic,” which “continues to strike at the heart of our economic sectors and has brought the issue of technology clearly at the forefront,” the Prime Minister noted that the roadmap of the CARICOM Single ICT space was approved years before the pandemic at the 28 inter-sessional meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in 2017.
He expressed the view that “the reduction in roaming charges will help drive digital commerce, regional integration, and economic development, and would have an even greater impact when total elimination is achieved.
“I want Cable and Wireless to understand that it has a major responsibility to move this and to ensure that we have total elimination as fast as possible,” Dr. Mitchell cautioned, while noting that “it is imperative that we tackle these issues if we want to make meaningful progress on this digital paradigm.”
The Lead Head of Government with responsibility for CSME, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Motley made a virtual appearance at Wednesday’s signing ceremony and cited the CARICOM Commission’s report on the economy, which acknowledged that “to have greater efficiency within our single market space, we need to create that single information and data space within our community.
Within that space, our goal really is the elimination of roaming charges, plain and it is simple as that. In Europe, they have done it, and the reality is, our citizens would like to roam as if they were home because they are at home in the Caribbean Community,” she remarked.
“…Over the coming days, and weeks we want our citizens to feel it where it matters in their pockets (and) we will closely monitor adherence to the commitments made here today, and follow through, and we encourage consumer groups to do so as well,” she said.
The female Bajan Prime Minister, who commended PM Mitchell for realising that “the future of our region depends on us unlocking this very difficult issue…creating that single regulatory space, and ensuring that the cost borne by our citizens with respect to telecom services, relate to the cost incurred by the telecoms providers, and not simply to have deemed rates of return that are way outside of the pockets of our citizens.”
PM Mottley concurred that “if we can do this, then we would add significantly to the competitiveness of the region, and it becomes even all the more critical given the likely increase in prices of fossil fuels that we would face as a result of the geo-political tensions in the world.”
She is optimistic that “we can have the conclusion of the framework within the next 12 to 18 months” to allow for a single regulatory space between the two major telecoms providers in our region.
The Director of Government Affairs – Digicel Group, Kieran Mulvey, was the other signatory on the St. George’s Declaration, who expressed the view that “we (the parties to the declaration) have established that confidence, trust, and replorer (to try again) over the last series of negotiations that will lead us to bring that team together again, and collectively achieve greater and more important milestones that will ensure the economic development of the Caribbean, and that they have available to them the same technologies that are available in Europe, the United States and other parts of the world”.
Regional governments and the telecommunications providers have also committed to continue collaboration in a number of areas including advancing towards a more harmonised regulatory environment and improving the overall customer experience by promoting greater regional connectivity.
The ceremony was also witnessed by Melford Nickolas from Antigua, who is the President of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), which had convened a collaboration forum which involved representatives of government, civil society and the telecommunications operators to develop regional ICT policy recommendations in matters which included intra CARICOM roaming.
“The reports from the collaboration, while inconclusive nonetheless informed further action on the roaming matter and led to a political intervention in 2020 that eventually resulted in the 2020 negotiations between a CARICOM team coordinated by the CTU, Cable & Wireless and Digicel – We celebrate the products of those negotiations today,” Nickolas declared.