...Hinds welcomes telecoms competition
Stabroek News
February 14, 2004
The Guyana government welcomes competition in the telecoms sector and hopes Cel*Star Guyana Inc will overcome obstacles and launch its cellular service.
So said Prime Minister Samuel Hinds at a ceremony held yesterday by Cel*Star to hand out diplomas certifying four employees in the use of Global Systems for Mobile Communication (GSM).
At its head office on 56 High Street, Kingston, Chief Operations Officer of Cel*Star Pierre Strasser stressed again that GT&T had no grounds for not going through with interconnection. GT&T says it will not offer interconnection until the issue of who actually owns Cel*Star is first settled.
Hinds said Cel*Star should work steadily and openly towards becoming a good corporate citizen and he added that in any situation where there was an effective monopoly it was human nature for people to suspect they were being taken advantage of. "We welcome foreign direct investment that provides the best-cost position for us."
He commended Cel*Star and its personnel for all they had accomplished and hoped the barriers would be removed to see Cel*Star becoming a competitor in the communications sector. The four gra-duates are Petal Beaton, Mark Cheong, Qamar Ganie and Raj Kumar Sukhdeo.