Guernsey Mulls Privatisation Of Telecoms

Tax-news.com

10 January 2000

Proposals for the future of Guernsey Telecoms, including privatisation, will be presented at two public meetings following a recent consultant's report that warned that failure to privatise would result in the island becoming a telecoms backwater.

The proposals are based on recommendations by the Advisory and Finance Committees and are due to be debated at the January Guernsey States meeting. Conseiller Laurie Morgan, President of the Advisory and Finance Committee, said: "The opportunities and threats posed by the development of e-commerce are relevant not only to the island's international businesses, but also to the future wellbeing of all local businesses, individual telecommunications customers and the community as a whole."

While banks and businesses are very supportive of the proposal to privatise Guernsey Telecoms, saying that this would allow e-commerce to flourish on the island, local politician Ivan Rihoy disagrees. He claims that privatisation will lead to the end of untimed local calls and the loss of jobs from Guernsey Telecoms. But Telecoms' chief executive David Coleman has strongly refuted Conseiller Rihoy's claims, calling them 'scaremongering' tactics and stressed that there will be no job losses and an independent regulator will be set-up to oversee charges.

The other main point of concern behind Counseiller Rihoy's comments is over elements of the proposals that would allow the island's telecommunications to be outsourced to a private company. Counseiller Rihoy has said he believes that if the States had acted sooner to give Guernsey Telecoms greater flexibility and control it over its affairs the issue of privatisation would not now be on the agenda.

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