FLOW’s Price backs NaRRA push to cut telecoms rollout delays

WESTERN BUREAU:

Stephen Price, vice-president and general manager of FLOW Jamaica, is endorsing the proposed establishment of the National Regulatory Reform Authority (NaRRA), arguing that Jamaica must urgently remove bureaucratic bottlenecks, which are slowing critical infrastructure rollout.

“I am happy to see the NaRRA kind of legislation for Jamaica, which is, hopefully, to get stuff done much more efficiently and pushed through so that big projects can get done,” Price said on Tuesday while addressing the ongoing 20th annual conference of the Organisation of Caribbean Utility Regulators (OOCUR) in Trelawny.

“It shouldn’t have to come to this. We have to find a way how the regulators help in terms of connecting the dots to help us really do the greater good for the country,” he added.

Price was one of the participants in a Utility Service Providers Round Table discussion, under the theme ‘Utility Perspectives on Regulation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Learnings’.

He argued that while NaRRA represented progress, the wider regulatory ecosystem must evolve in tandem to keep pace with the demands of modern telecommunications.

“Think about the landscape we are heading into for small developing states like ourselves. Technology is extremely expensive,” continued Price in noting that affordability would remain a persistent challenge for consumers.

“The cry is always going to be on affordability … and the consumer in our small island and developing space to afford this is a significant cost,” he said, noting that this would inevitably drive greater reliance on wireless solutions. “So we are going to have to push for more wireless technology.”

However, he cautioned that the transition to faster networks such as 5G would require significantly denser infrastructure.

“If we are unlocking faster technology, be it 5G as the case may be, you are going to have to have densities of coverage. And with densities of coverage, you need more towers or poles in order to proliferate the technology right across the country,” he said.

Price also underscored the fact that regulatory delays remained one of the most significant barriers to achieving that expansion, revealing that it could take well over a year to bring a single site into operation.

“Think about what we have to do to get one site up in my country. It takes an average of probably about 14 months … because I have to go through NEPA (National Environment Protection Agency), Ministry of Health, municipality, all these things in order to get a site up,” he said.

“These are technologies that are used globally. We have done the debunking, but still, we have to go through this process over and over again,” he added.

According to Price, streamlining approvals and improving coordination among regulators and government agencies could dramatically expand coverage across the island.

“We could have much more proliferation of coverage right across this country if we were able to unlock that,” he said.

Price also linked telecommunications expansion directly to economic performance, arguing that greater connectivity delivered measurable national benefits.

“Every single per cent of penetration that we achieve in any country spins off two to three per cent of GDP,” he said.

On Tuesday night, the House of Representatives approved the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill, clearing a key hurdle on the way to establishing a central agency to lead Jamaica’s post-Hurricane Melissa recovery. With that hurdle cleared, the bill will now move to the Senate for further consideration.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com