Committee to take over international telephone service [1]
Monday, March 20, 2000 - 12:00. Updated on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 - 14:49.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 1, March 2000.
When Cable Wireless plc withdraws its operation in Tonga on July 4 this year, the service of connecting Tonga to the outside world be taken over by an Interim Management Committee, according to Hon. Clive Edwards, a member of the Board of Tonga Telecom.
He said in January that negotiations on the compensation issue for Cable and Wireless plc were about to begin and should be resolved before July 3.
Clive said that the IMC would take over the running of the International Service until a new company was incorporated to run both the domestic and the international services. “Tonga Telecom can’t operate the International service because it has no power under its legislation, but government can handle that and then hand it over to the new corporation once it is registered,” he said.
“It is not going to be very difficult because we are just taking over an existing operation. The only new thing that we are going to do is that the routing of our international calls will have to be re-arranged.”
Clive said that the formation of the IMC was necessary because there were problems with getting the legislation for the formation of a new Ministry of Communications and the establishment of a new corporation to run both the domestic and the international service. “The legislation has not been enacted in time, and the whole timetable is out of order, but we are still coping with the situation by having an interim management committee. “There is no doubt that when we take over from Cable and Wireless there will be good revenue for government,” he said.
Negotiating team
Clive said that the most important step for government to take was to start negotiating with Cable and Wireless for compensation and payment.
The government negotiating team is made up of himself as chairman, ‘Aisea Taumoepeau for the government, and Busby Kautoke, the acting manager of the Tonga Telecom.
Clive said that negotiations with Cable and Wireless were to start in February. “If we disagree on the value and the amount of compensation, the matter will need to go to arbitration. All of this would have to be completed and settled before July 3,” he said.
The process of setting up a company to operate Tonga’s domestic telecommunications service presented two options, either to create another monopoly or to allow competition.
Clive said that during the process of restructuring Tonga’s telecommunications service, the board of Tonga Telecom recommended creation of a monopoly, and for all the services to be provided by the one corporation.
“The purpose of that recommendation was to provide sufficient attraction for an overseas investor to have a good return—and that was all very well, trying to bring in an investor, but that would not guarantee better service to the consumers of Tonga.”
Meanwhile, Clive said the IMC believed that, “equally important is the efficiency of the service and a good service for the consumers, and perhaps a cheaper service than to have a monopoly fix the fees irrespective of what you want. If you have competition, there is a better price and a better service, so we have been struggling with that, but as far as the committee is concerned a limited competition would be a good thing for Tonga. We are not alone in that view, even the consultants shared that view but their emphasis was on attracting investors, so that is the situation.”