New legislation for the introduction of an Electronic Communications Bill has been brought before the Cabinet of Dominica.
Managing Director of the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL), Embert Charles, made the disclosure at a press conference recently.
The new legislation was presented by ECTEL in collaboration with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC).
The first presentation was made earlier this week to the Cabinet of government ministers where Charles’s team spoke to a number of main provisions of the bill which include, the reasons why it now has to be called electronic communications as opposed to telecommunications.
“The legislation includes a primary bill called the Primary Electronic Communications Bill and four new regulations which will give some strength to that bill,” he said.
Charles said further that the new regulations cover wholesale services, consumer protection, guidelines for undertaking market analysis of the sector to determine whether service provider has significant market power or is dominant in the market.
He mentioned also that new conversion environment services are now delivered on one single platform.
“In previous arrangements, for instance if you had a data service to your home, you had a separate line from your phone and a separate line for your cable, today all these services are delivered on the same line,” he explained.
Furthermore Charles stated that consumer protection is perhaps what his team think is one of the landmark pieces of new regulations which is introducing some very stringent rules for protecting their consumer.
“Rules for instance, including the approval of a contract…,” he noted. “The contract has to be very clearly written, it has to be in a kind of a fine print that you can read.”
Charles pointed out that the team is trying to ensure that contracts are fairly reasonable for consumers.
“We also have to ensure that information is not misrepresented. For instance when a service provide says that the service is free or unlimited it means free in the English language and unlimited in the English language,” he explained. “Because most times it is free but in certain conditions, it is free after three. This is not free…”
Some of us Dominicas live like rabbit in hole , how do we decipher the amount of data each of us use with several people in same household . ?
I hope they stipulate the true definition of broadband according to the FCC:
4 Mbit/s down, 1 Mbit/s up – FCC, 2010
25 Mbit/s down, 3 Mbit/s up – FCC, 2015
We have FLOW here we claim fast broadband speeds at a base of 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s) those speeds are based on 1988 broadband speeds… so FLOW in the world of 1988
Thank you for explaining this tecnicallity. Now I know why I have to wait tapping my fingers while my FLOW loads SLOW..! Maybe new cables are required also, especially along places like the north and east coasts?
…technicality…
You’re lucky to get 1.5 to 2 from Cable & Wireless. Regardless of the fact that I pay for 2, my speed is more often down to way below 1. However, I’m told that their terms and conditions state “up to 2”, so anything below has to be accepted!
interesting stuff.
Good. The way to go.Hope the Bill includes detailed provisions on the qualification and experience required for membership on the Commission or whatever the new governing body is called.
Wow!! Why would you give yourself such a name? Is it for the attention?
DNO, a Bill introduced to Dominica and a Bill being introduced to Cabinet are two different things.
Some sense to this, finally