Terrelonge INFOCHANNEL'S Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Terrelonge, is calling on telecommunications regulators to examine the impact that the recently announced hike in domestic telephone rates (by Cable and Wireless) will have on Internet use in Jamaica and to consider introducing either a flat rate or another suitable system to counter a potentially negative situation.
Speaking recently from his Kingston office, Mr. Terrelonge said he is "deeply concerned about the negative effects that increasing costs may have on Internet users when the local telephone rates are increased by 65 per cent on November 1, 2002. As local telephone calls become more expensive, Internet use will also become more expensive and this will lead to fewer people having access to the facility which obviously contradicts national policy."
Mr. Terrelonge added that in the USA, in excess of 55 per cent of all domestic telephone traffic is now Internet related. "This is being made possible because of the existence of a "flat rate" instead of the more expensive "usage sensitive" billing system which was introduced in Jamaica a few years ago," Mr. Terrelonge added.
He proposed two ways to address the problem. "Regulators could introduce a system in which calls to Internet Service Providers are not chargeable or attract only a flat rate which the provider pays," Terrelonge explained. The alternative, he added is to "make the telephone rates for Internet usage lower so as not to discourage the use of this vital link to the local and global community."
Mr. Terrelonge said, "with full de-regulation virtually accomplished and Jamaica firmly established on the information super highway, it would now be counter productive to put Internet service out of the reach of all those who would wish to have access to it."
