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Fiji’s Commerce Commission has delayed the finalisation of a draft determination regarding the control of market power in Fiji’s telecommunication market.
Commission chair Mahendra Reddy told FijiLive the delay was necessary as telecom companies had asked for more time to study submissions made on their operations.
“We have not finalised anything at the moment and the process has been delayed because the companies have asked for more time to study the submissions,” Reddy said.
The commission announced last month that it was undertaking what it termed a “Review of the Control of Substantial Market Power for Interconnection Services in the Fiji Islands” with a call for submissions scheduled to close by last month, a public hearing to take place on the first week of this month and a draft determination to be produced by last week.
It was expected to adopt its final determination by yesterday, and the delay has now also postponed this exercise.
Fiji’s telecommunication market is currently undergoing major reforms following the signing in January 2008 of a Deed of Settlement between the Fiji government and incumbent operators, for the premature ending of their exclusive licenses in return for free 14-year open licenses.
This then set an agenda for a gradual opening of different markets, with the mobile network operator market being the first to open in October last year. The event coincided with the launch in Fiji of Irish-owned Digicel, which had won a competitive tender for its license with a bid worth US$10.25 million.
This ended Vodafone Fiji’s exclusive hold on Fiji’s mobile telephone market.
This month, the second major reform was instituted in the official liberalisation of international telecommunication access, effectively ending the exclusive contract in that market held by the Fiji International Telecommunications Ltd.
The third major reform, scheduled some two years from now, will involve the exclusive hold of Telecom Fiji Ltd on its national infrastructure.
The change in market dynamics has compelled the Commerce Commission, Fiji’s monopoly watchdog, to undertake a determination on whether substantial market power remained despite competition and whether this would necessitate its intervention in price control in Fiji’s telecommunication market.
