Telecom bill clears House

After being shelved for nearly three years, the proposed regulatory body for the telecommunications sector in the CNMI passed the House of Representatives on Friday in a split vote hailed by its proponents as a step towards attracting other potential investors.

Rep. Rosiky F. Camacho, author of HB 12-6 and chair of the Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications Committee, slammed opposition to the legislation, noting that other telecom firms may be encouraged to come in and break the monopoly long held by Micronesian Telephone Corporation.

“It will benefit the people, not just one company,” he told in an interview after the House voted 8-7 in favor of his bill which now heads to the Senate for action.

Opposition to the proposal, led by Rep. David M. Apatang, tried in vain to defer action as they raised fear that public comments from MTC and others were not considered by PUTC committee in the final draft of the measure.

“Why are we passing a bill that will regulate the sector,” he asked during floor discussion at last Friday’s two-hour session. “This is not right. We conduct public hearing and yet we just throw out their comments.”

MTC General Manager David M. Rogers, in a testimony presented to the committee last March, warned creation of the telecommunications commission in the CNMI would only discourage potential investors and drive away those in business due to these restrictions.

He had said that such policy contradicts the trend across the nation in which the Federal Communications Commission is pushing for deregulation of the industry in all states.

Mr. Apatang as well as Reps. Diego T. Benavente, Jesus T. Attao and Heinz S. Hofschneider expressed their support for MTC’s stance to block HB 12-6 as PUTC endorsed a substitute bill that they said did not include its comments.

Split vote

In the end, however, eight of the representatives under the coalition of Speaker Benigno R. Fitial voted in favor, narrowly beating the seven opposition. Vice Speaker Alejo M. Mendiola, Reps. Antonio M. Camacho and William S. Torres were absent.

“If one vote made the difference, I sure beat those minority,” said Mr. Camacho who provided the House a sketch of how the present set-up works to counter the strong opposition against the proposal.

According to the lawmaker, at issue is the current facility owned by MTC which controls all long-distance phone service providers in the CNMI.

He said that if a company plans to offer its service here, it will have to go through MTC which at the same time is an affiliate of GTE Pacifica, another long-distance service provider.

“A competing long-distance service provider must give its plan to MTC when it owns GTE. That’s not fair or GTE has to get out so it won’t see what the plan is,” said Mr. Camacho.

With the establishment of a regulatory body, issues such as this will be its sole responsibility and not MTC’s, he added. “It will help level the playing field so that other companies can come in,” the representative said.

While Mr. Fitial acknowledged that it’s their policy to assist existing businesses on the island, he said this should not be done at the expense of the consumers who must also be protected.

The 38-page bill 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 in 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 the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation 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.