A HOUSE majority has blocked CyTA’s expansion plans for investment in Greek telecommunications company, Q-Telecom, despite parliament previously approving £30 million for the project last April.
CyTA chairman, Efstathios Papadakis, reportedly blamed election motives for the decision, saying that the board should seek privatisation of the semi-governmental organisation after the elections, or suffer the consequences of decline.
DISY and KISOS deputies had already given the go-ahead for CyTA’s investment while DIKO rejected it last week. Approval rested in the hands of communist party, AKEL’s deputies, who informed Communications Minister Averoff Neophytou on Tuesday of their refusal to endorse the investment.
Q-Telecom is the fourth company to acquire a service provider licence for mobile telephony in Greece. Papadakis maintained that all the studies proved that the investment was a good one and expressed his deep regret at the collapse of the project. He criticised deputies for failing to pass the privatisation bill in 2001, when Neophytou was convinced not to submit the bill to the House during the run-up to parliamentary elections. He emphasised that the key to progress now was for the privatisation of CyTA.
Neophytou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that he could not explain why the investment had been rejected after months of negotiations with Q-Telecom. “The feasibility studies, surveys and so on were all positive. I can see no reason why it was rejected in parliament.” Regarding privatisation, the minister said that, unlike liberalisation, it was not an EU harmonisation requirement.
Meanwhile, with the departure of EU negotiator on Cyprus, Leopold Maurer, the Communications Ministry is moving swiftly along with the liberalisation of CyTA. Three important decisions were announced on the future of telecommunications in Cyprus: First, a new licence will be given to another organisation for second generation mobile telephony (GSM), the licensee to be announced on June 26. Second, free licences for third generation mobile telephony (UMTS) will be given for no fee to both CyTA and the new company, on the condition that the two develop third generation networks separately to cover 60 per cent of the island within 10 years. And lastly, the possibility of issuing a third mobile telephony licence will be re-examined after five years or in the event that the incoming company penetrates 35 per cent of the market.
Telecommunications regulator Vassos Pyrgos set the date for a public hearing, February 10, for all companies interested in competing in fixed telephony, satellite telephony, internet, phone book services, pay phones, digital voice and data transfer and all services that do not require a radar frequency. An unlimited number of licences will be given to companies that fulfil the criteria.
Regarding third generation mobile telephony, which facilitates high speed data transfer, the minister took into consideration the huge problems faced by international companies that paid billions of dollars for licences and then could not afford to set up the network as a result. “This way, you buy one, get one free, as long as you set it up within 10 years,” said Neophytou.
Currently, mobile telephony holds a 62 per cent stake in the Cypriot market.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
