TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES IN THE NETHERLANDS ANTILLES
The community as a whole is still suffering from unfair competition
Telecommunications is one of the key elements of the infrastructure of the Netherlands Antilles. The liberalization of this industry is a governmental priority. The liberalization process allows the services being offered to improve in both price structure and quality.
The telecommunication sector in the Netherlands Antilles is governed by the Ordinance on Telecommunication Services 1995 (‘Landsverordening Telecommunicatie-voorzieningen’) which came into force on the 1st of January 1996.
The installation, maintenance and operation of a telecommunication network, requires a concession. Concessions are granted by Government decree and different concessions are required for different services (long distance telecommunication services, mobile and local fixed telecommunication services).
As a result of certain case law regarding the fundamental right of freedom of information and information gathering, the liberalization of the telecommunication market accelerated, leading the Government to amend existing concessions and grant concessions to new entrants in the past couple of years.
Operators with significant market power, like the former monopolist United Telecommunication Services (UTS/SETEL), have certain statutory obligations to ensure access by other market participants and customers to the dominant operator’s networks and services in a non-discriminatory fashion and at reasonable rates. However, the former monopolist is still using unfair tactics and practices in dealing with competition. It simply refuses to carry out the Minister’s rulings, like not opening pre-select from mobile phones or prepaid phones. The result: many civil and administrative court cases.
Ironically, in June 2005, United Telecommunication Services itself complained about the monopolist on St. Kitts for not giving access to the local market in a proper way. Hopefully, this has not only been a strange, but also a mind-changing experience for them.
Karel Frielink
Attorney (Lawyer) / Partner
Note dated 27 June 2006
Red Herring’s K. Kuo today published his article China Mobile to Buy Millicom. Here follow the highlights. China Mobile, the world’s biggest cellular phone provider by number of subscribers, is expected to announce as early as this week its acquisition of Luxembourg-based Millicom, a mobile operator with cellular networks in 16 developing markets. Chinese media reports, citing insiders, put the price tag at $5.3 billion—$530 a head for Millicom’s 10 million subscribers. (…) China Mobile has made no secret of its preference for the established WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) license—the European standard—and not China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA, which has yet to be commercially deployed anywhere.
