Peeping Tom - THE CABLE GUY

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Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News, 2 July 2007

THE CABLE GUY

Yesterday, I ended on the note that Guyana must seek a fair economic
return for the use of its airwaves. The space above our heads is
perhaps the most valuable resource we have and therefore we must seek
to exploit its value by ensuring that those who are licensed to use it
in the provision of services pay a fee in relation to the value of the
services generated.

Imagine someone who overnight establishes a television station and
becomes rich beyond his or her wildest dreams from the revenue earned
from using that airspace. But just what do the people of Guyana get for
the licensing of that person to use that natural resource that is the
airwaves?

With the development of microwave technology, the airspace that we have
has become much more valuable for use by communication companies and
Guyana must therefore place a realistic value to the use of this
airspace by these companies.

Our airwaves are an inexhaustible resource. Unlike our forests and
goldfields which are presently being ravaged by private investors, the
airspace above our heads will not go away; it will remain intact and
potentially extremely valuable for the people of Guyana.

The fact that the airwave is not a diminishing resource should not,
however, lead us to take it for granted. It is used to provide a wide
array of services to our people and brings an extremely healthy return
to investors. Since this is a natural resource that forms part of the
natural patrimony, it should be managed in such a way that allows the
country to benefit from its exploitation, far more than we are
benefiting from gold and forests.

This is why the Peeper had suggested that no television station which
uses the spectrum should be paying less than twenty five million
dollars per year as a licensing fee; this is why the Peeper feels that
no radio station should be paying less than five million dollars per
year; this is why the Peeper feels that no telephone company that
transmits via cellular or radio waves should be paying less than two
hundred million dollars per year; this is why satellite systems that
transmit media content to homes via wireless means should pay no less
than twenty million dollars per year.

This list can be added to include the use of our country's airspace for
wireless internet services.

While we live in an information age, this not does mean that the
technology that is used in this age does not rely on natural resources;
it does. And unless we begin to see the space above our heads as a
natural resource, the people of this country will not be able to
benefit from the exploitation of this resource to the extent that they
ought to.

We should never have allowed a situation to develop whereby television
licenses were issued outside of a competitive process. Some Caribbean
countries have auctioned off licenses for the use of the national
communications spectrum and Guyana should have done the same so as to
maximize the benefit to the taxpayers of this country.

We cannot make the same mistake with the other services that use our
airspace. And this is why Prime Minister is correct when he says that
Guyana may not be ready for radio. It is not that there is not the
political and moral basis for liberalizing radio. We cannot take pride
in our democratic gains if there is no private radio station.

However, at the same time we will be perpetuating the chaotic
development of our media spectrum if we simply liberalize without
having regulations in place. Often regulation is viewed as form of
control or censorship but when examined in its wider connotations, it
includes regulations to guide the development of a valuable sector of
the country.

I certainly do not agree with the cease order issued to private Cable
companies. But what I do know is that if these Cable companies continue
to expand their services, it will force many television stations to
close down because people are simply going to sign up to Cable and will
not watch as much television which in turn will mean reduced
advertisement income and subsequent bankruptcy for many television
stations.

In the developed world, Cable is now the in-thing. Most homes have
Cable television, and most of the main traditional television networks
are now available on television. It is thus only a matter of time
before Cable networks overrun the television stations in Guyana.

In order to prevent this overrunning of television by Cable but at the
same time to allow greater viewing variety to the people of Guyana,
what is needed is a system of regulation that would guide the orderly
future development of the sector, particularly the communication
sector.

What Guyana needs to do is bring the entire communications spectrum
under regulations in a way that would determine what is a fair price
for the use of our airspace, a fair system for granting licenses, a
fair system for setting fees which take into account the use of the
country's natural patrimony, as well as regulations guiding content so
as to ensure that those granted licenses do not use the spectrum to
promote activities inimical to public order.

This is something that we must be cautions about given the experience
we have had with private television stations, some of which, as is
well-known, did things that caused a great deal of pain and suffering
within our society.

The worst thing that Guyana can do at the moment is to open up the
radio monopoly without putting regulation in place. This will lead to
the same chaos and the same concerns that have arisen because of the
reckless manner in which the television sector was liberalized in the
past.

Regulation of course brings with it concerns and suspicion. There are
many who feel that regulation can become a form of censorship and
control by the State. And given the class interests at work, there is
likely to be strong resistance towards any from of regulation.

The government has struggled to regularize the sector because of the
suspicions of the private media about broadcast legislation. Therefore,
what is needed is for some building of trust before moving rapidly
forward with this type of legislation.

How can this trust be built? This will be the subject of my column for
tomorrow.