MNP INVITES A THIRD TELECOM PROVIDER

Choosing between Digicel and Flow for your telecommunication needs is uncomfortably similar to waiting to cast your vote at a local polling station. It’s like having to choose between two evils. Deciding between the two services amounts to which is more expensive, drops the most calls, has the most defective data plans and unguaranteed texts. There is also the issue of currently only one provider of Internet and the sometimes haphazard connection.

The Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority’s launch of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) on Monday, although not guaranteed, might kick off an emergence of better service from local providers. MNP allows consumers to switch their provider easily and quickly while keeping their phone numbers. Now Digicel and Flow have equal access to the local market, possibly heightening competition stakes as the providers rope in new customers.

But it also opens the door for a third party to come in and swoon Saint Lucians with more attractive services and without a number switch. Andrew Millet, current managing director of ECTEL, said on Monday: “I guess all the providers will have to work the economics of it, but number portability will reduce the barriers of entry. We have an open market and we have to see more and more competition in Saint Lucia and the rest of the Caribbean.”

He continued: “I would definitely encourage competition. It’s one of the things that ECTEL wants to do: to increase the competition so the prices will go lower, and the service will improve of all providers. But we will definitely like to promote competition and increase the service that people actually receive.”

If there is a third provider, however, what would they have to do differently to stand out? Minister Guy Joseph explained that it would have to make required investment, and it is the only way to provide quality service. “At the end of the day,” he said, “striking the balance between how profitable the companies want to be and how much they want to spend in order to be profitable.”

The minister suggested this is also what would enable Saint Lucia’s current providers to deliver better service, and it is entirely up to the companies to gain a better standing in the eyes of consumers.

Millet added: “We have gotten a lot of concerns about the quality of service from broadband and mobile. That is something we are continuing work with the providers to enhance. That is a work in progress, and it must happen. We must improve the network connections and eliminate dropped calls and also data. Too many times the broadband connections are too slow. We need definitely to improve that.”

“Can the existing providers improve? They can improve substantially,” said Joseph. “The technology today makes it more manageable to improve the service at a lesser cost than before, when you had to roll out an entire fibre network. Now the technology allows us to access different ways of sending signals to benefit the consumers.”

Additionally: “The governments of these small islands must strike the right balance between how much we regulate, how much we do. If you squeeze the businesses to the point where they cannot operate at a profit, then it’s no longer an attractive market. We have to regulate in a manner that still allows our market to be attractive and profitable.”