Telemedia: achieving universal access requires support of G.O.B./regulators
Today was the final day of the sixth annual conference of the Organization of Caribbean Utility Regulators… and telecommunications was the topic taking centre stage. Among the presenters this morning was Chairman of Telemedia, Dean Boyce, who spoke on achieving Universal Service. Boyce says one of the challenges towards that goal is that Belize’s population is spread over a wide area, which means it costs more to provide services.
Dean Boyce, Chairman, Telemedia
“We have our interpretation of universal service that we are trying to apply here in Belize. Of course, access to a telephone network, certainly a minimum is shared but you should also have the capability of having a phone if you can afford to have one. Emergency services, operators services of course, national/international communications, internet is absolutely essential and certainly one hundred percent of all of the education establishments in the country must have internet access so every child must have equal opportunity, no matter where you are, no matter where you live in Belize. I said access to home phone, certainly access to cellular phone, question mark, but really it’s coming to that point. Everyone should have access to a cellular phone because it’s so important to everyone’s lives. It’s got to be affordable and non-discriminatory.”
“We are introducing C.D.M.A. four hundred and fifty, one of the first in the region from early next year and the objective is to deliver universal access to our whole country, that’s our overall objective. So this will be voice only services you could get in Belize City, you should be able to get in any small community in Belize. We need strong support from the regulator and the government, a supportive financial taxation structure, and I would beg to suggest that taking twenty-five percent of our gross revenue is not supportive and in fact would actually work against us. We can’t possibly—we’ve spent thirty million over the past few years and all our profits we’ve been ploughing back. What’s the point? Why on earth would we go through the trouble of doing all this if the government’s just gonna take all the other taxes out. So that’s gonna have an impact. We have to have our appropriate licensing policy.”
Boyce says he understands government’s desire to increase its revenue, but feels that taking a quarter of B.T.L.’s gross returns is not the answer.
Dean Boyce
“We’ve got a margin on revenue of let’s say about thirty percent before tax, a bit over thirty percent, twenty-five percent, that’s gonna be taking away most of our profits and there are other ways of achieving what I think the government rightly wants. They’re looking for sources of income but I believe there are better ways to achieve that—using the industry to achieve those revenue sources. Look at the country, we know it needs developing and we’re only two willing to work closely with the government to achieve that but it needs to be done in a way that’s not going to be debilitating to the industry and damage the industry and in a won’t stop the development we are talking about. If we’re talking about removing pretty much all of our profits and the twenty-five percent of our curve margins would take two-thirds of our telecommunications profits, then clearly that’s not really being terribly helpful. And I think if we sat down and talked with them and we’re able to talk with them, we’ve been trying to engage in dialogue for some time and I’m hoping that in time we can sit down and I think these things are solvable.”
The proposed amendments to the Business and Income Tax Act are scheduled to be tabled in the House next Friday.
