FOR the third week running, the Cabinet yesterday postponed a decision on whether to allow the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) to compete in the soon to be liberalised telecommunications sector.
The proposal ran into trouble three weeks ago, when Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis and Communications and Works Minister Averoff Neophytou clashed over whether the EAC should be eligible to bid for a mobile licence when the market was opened up later this year.
Neophytou believes the EAC should not participate because it is a semi-government organisation. He said such a bid would not be a liberalisation of the market but a further nationalisation, since one semi-government organisation, CyTA, already holds the monopoly on telecommunications.
Rolandis, however, says that the EAC should be allowed to bid for a licence because it has the necessary infrastructure to do so. He said it would be unfair for the EAC have to face the liberalisation of its own sector without having he opportunity to diversify and expand into other areas to offset competition in the electricity sector.
Reports earlier this week said President Glafcos Clerides had been forced to intervene in an effort to have the two ministers reach a compromise before yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.
Rolandis said, however, that the reports were unfounded. Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, he told reporters that the ministers had started discussing the issue but decided not focus on it any further yesterday.
“The issue will be first on the list next week and the Cabinet will make a decision,” he said.
Commenting on reports that a formula had been found to allow the EAC to compete as part of a bigger consortium, Rolandis said there were some thoughts towards that end, but he did not elaborate.
He said it was possible that he and Neophytou would have some contact before the next Cabinet meeting.
EAC chairman George Georgiades said yesterday it was the authority’s intention to enter the mobile phone market as part of a consortium.
“Our intention to enter the telecommunications field is directly linked to the fact that the EAC has unused telecommunications wealth at its disposal,” Georgiades told a news conference in Nicosia. “The authority has substantial infrastructure, like technical knowledge, clientele, service centres, installations, etc, that could help when aligning with a strategic investor.”
The EAC is already discussing potential co-operation with three consortiums and it is aspiring to make a competitive entrance into the field and provide an alternative choice to the public, Georgiades said.
“We have the technical know-how and infrastructure to expand in telecommunications and we are contesting our right to compete for a licence,” he said.
The government hopes to open up the mobile phone sector in October and expressions of interest have been received from international companies such as Vodafone, Telestet and Greece’s CosmOTE, which are interested in GSM licences. The list also includes other companies from the US, France, Germany, the UK, Scandinavia and Russia.
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.
