TSTT must slim down
BY SHERRY ANN SINGH

http://www.guardian.co.tt/bussguardian4.html

Prepare to pay more for your land line telephone service when new
cellular providers enter the market. TSTT Chairman Christian Mouttet
said rate rebalancing was inevitable and “absolutely critical” in a
competitive marketplace. As it stands, he said, TSTT’s land line
business was a cost to the company and had to be subsidised by revenues
from cellular and international service.

“No one’s coming in here to compete in our land line business. When the
competition comes in here and they have an effect on our profitability
in those two sectors, it’s going to affect our ability to continue to
roll out land line service,” Mouttet said.

He said TSTT had already advised Government it has a rate rebalancing
exercise to conduct and this must be done sooner rather than later.
“You’ve got to rebalance before you open up because the other guys that
are going to come in here don’t have this loss-making business attached
to them,” he said. “We’ve got to reach a point where we are at least
breaking even on our land line business in order to have an even playing
field.”

Mouttet said telecom rates have been re-balanced in almost every market
where competition has been allowed. He said the rebalancing exercise was
being considered by the authorities.