CHAIRMAN of the Telecommunications Advisory Council (TAC), Dr Hopeton Dunn has said that the Telecommunications Act 2000 would need to be revised before the full liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in March 2003.

“In fact the government recognises that there are important gaps in the Act and we are now in the process of identifying some of those key gaps and what are the ways in which we can improve the regulatory context,” Dunn told the government’s news agency, the Jamaica Information Service.

The TAC recently invited members of the public to make submissions on any modifications, deemed necessary, to the existing telecommunications regulatory policy and framework as part of preparations for a full opening of the market.

Dunn said that areas requiring public inputs included the nature of the future of the licensing regime; universal service/access; service level standards; tariff structure; connectivity arrangements; legislative reform; rationalisation of regulatory institutions and privacy issues. He said submissions have been coming in, and added that the review process would begin in another two months.

The TAC chairman also said the regulatory agencies relating to telecommunications, broadcasting and other activities in that field would have to be closely examined. There was a case, he noted, for the concentration of telecommunications and broadcasting regulations instead of what obtained at present.

Currently, cable and Internet services providers have to deal with several agencies, including the Broadcasting Commission, for matters relating to cable, and to the Office of Utilities Regulation for Internet provision. The Spectrum Management Agency and the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) are also regulatory agencies to which these service providers have to relate.

“We are saying that not all of these can come together, but we should have a good look at which ones can come together to make for more efficient regulation,” Dunn said.

The Telecommunications Advisory Council was set up under the Telecommunications Act 2000 to advise the government on specific areas of policy relating to the regulation of the telecoms sector, the services that are available in the sector and to galvanise and report to the government on the public’s perception of the sector.