By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
February 25, 2022
The Caribbean is one step closer to reducing mobile phone roaming charges. This as the CARICOM Heads of Government signed the Declaration of St George’s in Grenada, towards the Reduction of Intra CARICOM Roaming Charges, with regional network operators, Digicel Group and Cable & Wireless Communications.
The declaration will result in the reduction of intra-CARICOM roaming charges and facilitate the provision of seamless mobile (cellular) services, including voice, SMS text and data. CARICOM residents will now roam in Caribbean islands at a significantly reduced cost, up to 70 percent savings by one estimate, with benefits to be seen as early as the second quarter of this year.
Importantly, as mentioned by the Digicel and Cable and Wireless’ representatives, citizens’ charges will be predictable and transparent thus resulting in the elimination of severe bill shock that has been experienced in the past.
Prime Minister of Grenada and Lead CARICOM Head of Government with responsibility for Science and Technology, Dr Keith Mitchell, described it “as a historic signing”. And while he says the region still has some critical milestones ahead of it. He noted ideally, Caribbean leaders wanted to see the full elimination of roaming charges within the Caribbean Community as it will continue to push for this in the interest of our Caribbean people.
Dr Mitchell says the move will augur well to the development of the Caribbean as an economic sphere. However, he says consideration must be given to the technical aspects of the implementation and the public awareness campaigns that must take place.
With Dr Mitchell leading the area of Science and Technology regionally at the CARICOM Heads of Government level, he said in order for it to work, a governance structure to bring the declaration into being in a tight timeframe had to be implemented, something which Prime Minister Mitchell took the opportunity to thank and praised all involved. “On behalf of my colleague Heads of Government and the people of the Caribbean Community, I thank them for that commitment to significantly reduce roaming rates in the region, but I stress again that there is much more to be done as we seek to deliver on our original objective.”
Dr Mitchell says the committee has commissioned a study through the support of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union on the impact of Over the Top services (OTTs) and Big Tech within the regional ICT sector. Dr Mitchell says this was possible through the support of the International Telecommunication Union.
The CARICOM committee structure comprised a Prime Ministerial Council of Dr. Keith Mitchell and Mia Mottley, while a Ministerial Strategy Group was made up of ICT Ministers from four CARICOM Member States, headed by the President of the CTU, Minister Melford Nicholas, the Minister responsible for ICT in Antigua and Barbuda, an Advisory Working Group, made up of senior technical officers of three CARICOM Member States and senior officials of the CARICOM Secretariat and the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL); and a Negotiating Team, led by Mr. Selby Wilson of the CTU Secretariat.
Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, who attended the signing virtually said it was a large step, but noted as a people we were “short of our destination to eliminate roaming completely. Data bridges are absolutely critical and more so, as a result of the pandemic, we need to keep connectivity going. Data, information and connectivity must be cheap, must be available and must be fast.”
She added that CARICOM had negotiated with a local, regional and international industry as one, in the explicit pursuit of its single market and space. The Barbados PM says it was time the region moved toward taking steps to creating a single ICT regulatory environment in CARICOM and ensuring that the cost born by our citizens for telecoms services relate to the cost incurred by telecoms providers, and not have deemed rates of return that are outside the pockets of our citizens.”
Kieran Mulvey, director, of Government Affairs at the Digicel Group, described the partnership with the region as a strengthening of current relations in the Caribbean. He added that Digicel was also committed to working with the region he says has brought tremendous business to, and it had pledged support in all areas of Caribbean life as part of it corporate social responsibility.