And while the PM and his utilities minister seem to be busy paving the way for a monopoly, does the Cabinet support that? Last week, senior Minister Francis Fonseca said he supports competition - and yesterday, Henry Usher said he does too.
Here's how he put it yesterday:
Reporter
"As Cabinet Minister, one of those news blogs that's adverse to the government has said that oh the idea of a monopoly is dividing Cabinet, as it has divided the BTL board and so many others, SSB, but what is your position on returning to a telecoms monopoly?"
Henry Charles Usher, PUP Chairman
"I think that it certainly needs more consultation, it needs more discussion, and we need to look if the telecom provider is saying that the market is not available for more than one provider. Then we need to see why, and we need to get all the information. So to say, oh, it has to be a monopoly, it has to be competition, until we have all that information, we wouldn't be able to give an informed answer. I'm certainly somebody in favor of competition, that's something that I've always advocated for, but it might be that economies of scale, it might be that the market is just not there for more than one provider. But we need to see that information before we can make a decision."
Reporter
"When you say we, are you referring to you as Cabinet Ministers or the public?"
Henry Charles Usher, PUP Chairman
"Both, I think that everybody needs to be able to get the information. Certainly at Cabinet, we are supposed to get that information next week, I'm hoping, and then that information needs to be broadcast in the best way possible, you know, not saying that you have to give everything out there, but you have to be able to say, okay, this is the background, this is the policy reason for doing what we're doing, before we take that next step."
