The 97th meeting of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) was held on April 17 to 18 in Saint Lucia. Some alternates, heads of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commissions (NTRCs), NTRC Commissioners and observers attended virtually.
The Chairman of the Board, Philip Dalsou noted that the governance arrangement of ECTEL requires the Board of Directors to meet four times a year to be updated on the work of the regional telecommunications regulator.
“The key items under discussion were the work plan, an update on the end of year financial reports of ECTEL and updates on some of the key projects,” he said.
The Board of Directors ensures that the electronic communications sector remains properly regulated and that consumers and investors continue to benefit from an industry liberalised over two decades ago. According to ECTEL’s new Managing Director, David Cox, “the advent of ECTEL and regulations in the telecommunications market has led to significant drops in the prices of telecommunications services, it has led to incredible levels of investment.”
Cox said one of the key items on the agenda was the much-awaited Electronic Communications Bill, also known as the EC Bill, which is an update to the current Telecommunications Act. “With the enactment of this EC Bill we could see even higher levels of investment, higher levels of competition and even a greater contribution from the telecommunications sector and ICTs generally to the economies of the region,” noted Cox.
The EC Bill when enacted will allow the five NTRCs which ECTEL advises to better serve consumers and allow for more investments in the sector. It is the hope that the EC Bill will be enacted in the remaining ECTEL Contracting States within the next year or so. To date, two ECTEL Contracting States have passed the EC Bill: St. Kitts and Nevis on February 18, 2021, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines which became the second state to do so on October 24, 2022. ECTEL’s five Contracting States are the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.