If you thought the cellular market was competitive already, think again. The Telecommunications Authority is intent of finding a third mobile provider by 2011. Request for Proposals will b available in January 2011. Cris Seecharan, TATT's executive director, said TATT always intended for three operators in the mobile market space. A licence was awarded to George Laquis backed-Laqtel in 2006 but the company failed to start.
Laqtel's concession was revoked in 2007. "Since that time we have decided to fill that void by bringing a third mobile operator," Seecheran told the Business Guardian. "Someone who would hopefully compete head-on with Digicel and TSTT to make the market place more competitive than it even is right now," he said. Questioned on whether that made sense, given the high penetration rates in the local markets, Seecheran said there was still room for another company.
"It's saturated in relation to the number of people who have phones. We're almost at 100 per cent in relation to people having phones. In relation to the services that are provided there's a whole realm of services out there- possibilities our market does not have.," he said. "So we're hoping we get a third operator who would bring those type of services and further develop that market," he said.