Senate may widen scope of telecom bill

A bill passed by the House of Representatives seeking creation of a regulatory body for telecommunication firms on the islands will go through closer review in the upper house before it is sent to the floor for voting.

Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez, chair of the Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications Committee, said he would seek comments again from private companies and the public as part of its deliberation on the legislation.

He disclosed that the committee may incorporate a pending Senate bill on a proposed commission regulating entire utilities services in the Commonwealth.

HB 12-6, otherwise known as the Commonwealth Telecommunications Act, seeks to establish a five-man commission that will regulate the sector in the CNMI in an effort to lure other potential investors here.

SB 12-54 will create a new agency to oversee all utilities providers, including the government-owned Commonwealth Utilities Corp., in order to protect consumers who might be paying higher rates in the absence of control.

“We need to gather the views of the private sector and the people in the community before we can act on the telecom bill,” Mr. Villagomez told in an interview yesterday. “We also plan to merge the bill with the Senate proposal.”

Introduced by Sen. Ramon S. Guerrero, SB 12-54 has been with the committee since March and was similar to earlier legislation filed in both houses of the Legislature.

HB 12-6, proposed by Rep. Rosiky F. Camacho, went through months of review and a public hearing by the PUTC committee which he chairs.

The proposal narrowly passed the lower house after some members, led by Rep. David M. Apatang, strongly opposed it largely due to what they said as impact on existing businesses, such as the Micronesian Telephone Corp. — the sole domestic phone service provider here.

MTC General Manager David M. Rogers submitted a testimony resisting the proposed regulatory body, saying that it contradicts trend in the mainland when the Federal Communications Commission is pushing for deregulation of the telecom sector.

Mr. Camacho has appealed to his Senate counterpart to pass the measure which is similar to three proposals introduced since 1997 in an effort to comply with the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

One measure was passed by the lower house, but pushed to the back burner by the Senate. During the previous Legislature, then PUTC chair, Mr. Apatang, did not act on the two bills sponsored by former Rep. Melvin Faisao.

Under HB 12-6, a five-man commission will have the responsibility to regulate the sector as well as to establish guidelines, including rates and fees.

Although CUC was given the mandate to regulate the telecom sector under Public Law 4-47, it has not been able to do so due to limited staff and technical expertise.