BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Consumers in CARICOM countries are still feeling the pinch of telecommunication roaming charges despite an agreement being signed earlier this year with two of the telecommunication providers in the Caribbean, CARICOM Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett has said.
“We have the unfortunate reality that our telecommunications infrastructure in the region which controls the internet services are legacy systems from the same European owners who are now dropping the charges among each other in Europe, but when we get around the table with the subsidiaries in the region it is really very difficult to negotiate to remove the charges,” Barnett told the audience attending the Owen S Arthur Distinguished Lecture Series on Monday night.
She described the situation “as an ongoing conversation” adding “there is a little bit of progress that was made…I am advised among themselves an agreement to reduce the charges not to eliminate totally.
“The objective is to eliminate totally, but as I say the owners of those telecommunication companies in each of our member states, they negotiate with each of our member states their arrangements differently with each our member states.
“The solution to that is likely to be a single regulatory mechanism that would determine that across the region. That’s a complex situation yet to be negotiated,” Barnett added.
In February, the regional grouping moved one step closer towards the elimination of roaming charges within CARICOM by signing the St George’s Declaration on Roaming with two of the telecommunication providers in the Caribbean.
CARICOM said then that the agreement signaled the beginning of new opportunities for the region, following the signing with Digicel and Cable and Wireless.
The then Grenada prime minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, who had lead responsibility for Science and Technology within the quasi-CARICOM Cabinet, said that regional governments have long recognized the value of collaboration and cooperation as core principles of regional integration.
“It is in this spirit that regional leaders agreed in 2014 to establish a CARICOM Single Information Communication Technology (ICT) Space, having recognized the critical role that information and communication technology play in our social, cultural and economic development.”
He said essentially the Single ICT Space represents the digital arm of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of skills, goods, services and labor across the 15-member regional integration grouping.
“We are encouraged by the milestone being recorded today as we sign The Declaration of St George’s – Towards the Reduction of Intra CARICOM Roaming Charges. However, our eyes are set firmly on the ultimate goal which is to achieve the total elimination of roaming charges within CARICOM,” Mitchell said then.
Barnett told the audience on Monday night until there is a single regulatory mechanism, “we have the untidy reality of providers establishing different companies in each country and establishing the relations with each country.
“So that’s an untidy reality. We don’t have that super structure you have in the European Union that makes some of those things easier to do,” she told the questioner, adding “so the work is still there and the question I would ask is those who move within the region whether you are feeling that reduction in roaming charges that was agreed…and which is entirely in the purview of the telecommunication companies to roll out.
“That’s something we would want to know whether we are feeling that yet,” she added.
