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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER
BY DEPUTY R. LABEY OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 23rd FEBRUARY 2016
Question
Can the Chief Minister detail what actions, if any, have been undertaken and what directions have been issued to the Jersey Competition and Regulatory Authorities and the JT Board and/or the executive management of JT to ensure that JT is mandated to provide local wholesale services?
Furthermore, given that, in 2009, international consultants Regulaid advised that the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority should require JT to provide wholesale services to other local telecommunications licensed operators (OLTLOs), will the Minister explain why wholesale line rental, in particular broadband services, is not available to OLTLOs and what action, if any, he proposes to take to resolve this?
Answer
This matter falls within the area of responsibility led by Assistant Minister, Senator Philip Ozouf .
The Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities (CICRA) currently obliges JT in Jersey to provide local wholesale services in broadband, leased lines and wholesale line rental.
Wholesale line rental is the most recent addition to this portfolio of wholesale access products and was introduced in June 2015 as directed by CICRA.
More recently, on the 10th of February 2016, CICRA issued a consultation to establish the nature and extent of demand for additional wholesale access services. Its next steps will be guided by the responses to that consultation and the potential additional benefits to Jersey consumers.
The Deputy refers to the Regulaid report that was conducted in 2009. The recommendations from this report have informed the regulator's work over the years since its publication. However, it is important to recognise that this report is just one of a number of factors that drive the JCRA's work programme.
As the Deputy will be aware, in 2015 the Government of Jersey commissioned Oxera to review the JCRA and the regulatory and competition framework applied in Jersey. This review identified whether, in order to improve the outcome for the Jersey economy in general, and Jersey consumers in particular, changes could be made to the way the JCRA functions, the framework under which it operates, and/or the way stakeholders interact with the JCRA. The review focuses on the operation of the JCRA itself, but also considers the broader policy and institutional context in which the JCRA operates. On the 2nd February 2016 the government published the draft regulatory and competition framework review action plan.