Minister of Finance Victor Banks, responded to requests made by listeners of Talk Your Mind that he should appear on the weekly talk show to answer questions about the liberalisation of the telecommunications market in Anguilla and the increased fees agreed to between Government and Cable & Wireless.

The programme hosted by John Benjamin, was aired on Wednesday June 11 on Kool FM 103.3 FM.
The Minister of Finance referred to the Cable & Wireless issues as a “tough decision” that the Government of Anguilla had to make.
According to him, “The domestic calls are now set at a price in an interim agreement with Cable & Wireless. This is to ensure that the service is maintained over a period over the whole liberalisation.”
He further explained that introduction of competition, because of liberalisation, “will result not only in these costs for domestic calls going down, but all other costs as well for the other services provided by telecoms. So at the end of the day, we are establishing an environment (it’s a transitionary period) where the benefits[are] going to come to the people of Anguilla down the road.”
Upon extensive questioning by callers, Mr. Banks further declared that “liberalisation is desirable and because it is desirable, we will have to pay the cost for the process because at the end of the day we can benefit.”
Mr. Banks explained that the benefits of liberalisation would come in the form of new jobs and new opportunities, especially in e-commerce.
The question about the possibility of new companies entering the Anguillian market was affirmatively answered: “They are waiting in the wings. We have applications from a number of companies from outside Anguilla who are ready to come to Anguilla once this liberalisation exercise is completed. By August - September, we’ll go through a process where we’ll allow at least two additional telecoms providers to come to Anguilla.”
Concerning the issue of the domestic tariff that has been levied by Cable & Wireless, Mr. Banks said that it is “a burden that people will have to bear,” but added there was a considerable reduction in international calls.

Mr. Victor Banks

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