The bill was tabled by former minister Jacqui Drollet.
After heated debates, it was passed by 32 of the 57 MPs, mostly from Drollet’s party, the UPLD (Union for Democracy, led by pro-independence leader and current Speaker of the House, Oscar Temaru) and backed by former President Gaston Flosse’s Tahoeraa Huiraatira.
23 other MPs voted against and two others abstained, local media reported.
Digicel’s project, in its current form, involves some eighty percent of foreign funds to be injected into the French Pacific territory.
The Caribbean-based company has since reacted by saying that in view of the latest decision, its current investments in French Polynesia were being put on hold.
An earlier bid from the company was first declined in April 2009, then okayed three months later.
Digicel, which is now operating in six Pacific island States (Vanuatu, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Nauru), is regarded as the fastest expanding mobile phone operator in the region.
Under Drollet as then minister for digital economy, Digicel has been engaged in talks since 2009 with the local government of this French Pacific territory.
Early April 2009, however, the company was asked to start its bidding procedure from scratch, which it did.
In February 2010, Digicel was granted its business licence by local authorities and five months later, it was allocated its frequencies.
Earlier this year, French Polynesia’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (CESC) ruled on the sensitive issue in critical terms, by saying that the thirty five percent ceiling on foreign investment in telecommunications could be regarded as “inopportune protectionism”, but also could send a negative message to potential overseas investors “whereas precisely, the opposite policy should be favoured in order to attract them”.
The CESC further noted in its motivated ruling that “with such a bill passed, in terms of market openness, French Polynesia will enjoy the privilege of being classified between Ethiopia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan”.
Digicel’s local manager Emmanuel Doubinsky said, in reaction, that this kind of setback was “a first” for Digicel in the Pacific region.
Defending his Bill, Drollet said the gist was to “protect the interest of French Polynesians” and to “ensure French Polynesia’s market is not a platform for certain foreign companies to repatriate their capital back in their home countries or elsewhere”.
When it asked Digicel to re-launch its bid in April 2009, the then government cited one of the motives as being that proper procedure had not been followed during the first bidding and asking process.
Local authorities then asked for Digicel (which lodged its initial application as “Digicel Pacific Limited”) to follow procedure related to foreign investors and set up a locally-registered company, then to re-start the candidacy process all over again, including the first step to request a green light to invest in the French Pacific territory.
Local consumers associations at the time slammed the move, saying this was only an excuse on the part of the local government in order to protect existing monopolies.
Digicel, through its local representative in French Polynesia, has since stated that this did not alter the company’s drive to set up shop in French Polynesia.
Vodafone bid
Apart from Digicel, another major mobile phone network operator already well-represented in the Pacific, Vodafone, is also vying for a green light to operate in French Polynesia.
Both bidders are claiming their intent to install at least 2G, even 3 to 4G (G for generation of networks) technologies.
At a cabinet meeting, early July 2009, another request to operate (lodged by a S.A.S Pacific Mobile Telecom) was acknowledged, with the view of setting up a third generation (3G) network in French Polynesia.
S.A.S Pacific Mobile Telecom is acting on behalf of Vodafone under a joint venture.
Its local representative Patrick Moux, has stressed the main advantages for local users would be that Vodafone is part of a global network that would offer a full array of benefits, especially in terms of international roaming in travelling mode.
“Users from French Polynesia, when they are travelling, say, in the US, in New Zealand or in Europe, will no longer face the risk of a potential heart attack when they return home from overseas and see their international call bills”, Moux joked during a press conference on Monday.
In March 2009, Vodafone’s director for global enterprise Nick Jeffery met French Polynesia’s then digital economy minister Jacqui Drollet.
Vodafone is also a major shareholder (43.9 per cent) in metropolitan France’s SFR company.
Fading monopoly
In French Polynesia, mobile and fixed telephone networks have long been subject to a de facto monopoly by public company OPT (Office of Posts and Telecom) and its subsidiary Tikiphone.
One of the prerequisite set by local authorities to any new bid is for the intending operator not only to cover the most densely populated areas (the capital Pape’ete, the main island Tahiti and its sister island Moorea), but also to provide connectivity and coverage to the rest of French Polynesia (a total area equivalent to that of Europe).
A first sign of the opening up of French Polynesia mobile phone market came late 2007 when, for the first time, a new company, Mara Telecom, was allowed to pursue in its moves to operate.
Late February, French Polynesia provident fund (CPS) Board of Directors approved, in principle, an offer to invest some six millions US dollars in Mara Telecom, when the company starts to operate.
Mara Telecom said earlier this week it planned to start operations early 2010.
Drollet said granted this, he was all for more competition in the mobile telephone industry.
“As long as people accept the rules and play the game accordingly, there is no reason why competition should not prevail”, Drollet said at the time.
He however expressed reservations as to whether the size of the market (about 260,000 inhabitants) was sufficient for at least four operators (OPT, Mara, Digicel and Vodafone) to survive there.
Darwinian approach: let the fittest win
Drollet also strongly hinted that preference would certainly be given to operators that would commit to not only covering the main island of Tahiti, but also the rest of the vast archipelago, which was by nature less lucrative.
“It would be good that the companies engage on a coverage for the whole of French Polynesia”, added Drollet, who also suggested the notion of a shared network of microwave repeaters and relays in order to alleviate structural costs.
He went further saying another factor was to avoid the appearance of “forests” of mobile telephone antennas and towers which he said would also be detrimental to “aesthetics”.
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After heated debates, it was passed by 32 of the 57 MPs, mostly from Drollet’s party, the UPLD (Union for Democracy, led by pro-independence leader and current Speaker of the House, Oscar Temaru) and backed by former President Gaston Flosse’s Tahoeraa Huiraatira.
23 other MPs voted against and two others abstained, local media reported.
Digicel’s project, in its current form, involves some eighty percent of foreign funds to be injected into the French Pacific territory.
The Caribbean-based company has since reacted by saying that in view of the latest decision, its current investments in French Polynesia were being put on hold.
An earlier bid from the company was first declined in April 2009, then okayed three months later.
Digicel, which is now operating in six Pacific island States (Vanuatu, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Nauru), is regarded as the fastest expanding mobile phone operator in the region.
Under Drollet as then minister for digital economy, Digicel has been engaged in talks since 2009 with the local government of this French Pacific territory.
Early April 2009, however, the company was asked to start its bidding procedure from scratch, which it did.
In February 2010, Digicel was granted its business licence by local authorities and five months later, it was allocated its frequencies.
Earlier this year, French Polynesia’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (CESC) ruled on the sensitive issue in critical terms, by saying that the thirty five percent ceiling on foreign investment in telecommunications could be regarded as “inopportune protectionism”, but also could send a negative message to potential overseas investors “whereas precisely, the opposite policy should be favoured in order to attract them”.
The CESC further noted in its motivated ruling that “with such a bill passed, in terms of market openness, French Polynesia will enjoy the privilege of being classified between Ethiopia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan”.
Digicel’s local manager Emmanuel Doubinsky said, in reaction, that this kind of setback was “a first” for Digicel in the Pacific region.
Defending his Bill, Drollet said the gist was to “protect the interest of French Polynesians” and to “ensure French Polynesia’s market is not a platform for certain foreign companies to repatriate their capital back in their home countries or elsewhere”.
When it asked Digicel to re-launch its bid in April 2009, the then government cited one of the motives as being that proper procedure had not been followed during the first bidding and asking process.
Local authorities then asked for Digicel (which lodged its initial application as “Digicel Pacific Limited”) to follow procedure related to foreign investors and set up a locally-registered company, then to re-start the candidacy process all over again, including the first step to request a green light to invest in the French Pacific territory.
Local consumers associations at the time slammed the move, saying this was only an excuse on the part of the local government in order to protect existing monopolies.
Digicel, through its local representative in French Polynesia, has since stated that this did not alter the company’s drive to set up shop in French Polynesia.
Vodafone bid
Apart from Digicel, another major mobile phone network operator already well-represented in the Pacific, Vodafone, is also vying for a green light to operate in French Polynesia.
Both bidders are claiming their intent to install at least 2G, even 3 to 4G (G for generation of networks) technologies.
At a cabinet meeting, early July 2009, another request to operate (lodged by a S.A.S Pacific Mobile Telecom) was acknowledged, with the view of setting up a third generation (3G) network in French Polynesia.
S.A.S Pacific Mobile Telecom is acting on behalf of Vodafone under a joint venture.
Its local representative Patrick Moux, has stressed the main advantages for local users would be that Vodafone is part of a global network that would offer a full array of benefits, especially in terms of international roaming in travelling mode.
“Users from French Polynesia, when they are travelling, say, in the US, in New Zealand or in Europe, will no longer face the risk of a potential heart attack when they return home from overseas and see their international call bills”, Moux joked during a press conference on Monday.
In March 2009, Vodafone’s director for global enterprise Nick Jeffery met French Polynesia’s then digital economy minister Jacqui Drollet.
Vodafone is also a major shareholder (43.9 per cent) in metropolitan France’s SFR company.
Fading monopoly
In French Polynesia, mobile and fixed telephone networks have long been subject to a de facto monopoly by public company OPT (Office of Posts and Telecom) and its subsidiary Tikiphone.
One of the prerequisite set by local authorities to any new bid is for the intending operator not only to cover the most densely populated areas (the capital Pape’ete, the main island Tahiti and its sister island Moorea), but also to provide connectivity and coverage to the rest of French Polynesia (a total area equivalent to that of Europe).
A first sign of the opening up of French Polynesia mobile phone market came late 2007 when, for the first time, a new company, Mara Telecom, was allowed to pursue in its moves to operate.
Late February, French Polynesia provident fund (CPS) Board of Directors approved, in principle, an offer to invest some six millions US dollars in Mara Telecom, when the company starts to operate.
Mara Telecom said earlier this week it planned to start operations early 2010.
Drollet said granted this, he was all for more competition in the mobile telephone industry.
“As long as people accept the rules and play the game accordingly, there is no reason why competition should not prevail”, Drollet said at the time.
He however expressed reservations as to whether the size of the market (about 260,000 inhabitants) was sufficient for at least four operators (OPT, Mara, Digicel and Vodafone) to survive there.
Darwinian approach: let the fittest win
Drollet also strongly hinted that preference would certainly be given to operators that would commit to not only covering the main island of Tahiti, but also the rest of the vast archipelago, which was by nature less lucrative.
“It would be good that the companies engage on a coverage for the whole of French Polynesia”, added Drollet, who also suggested the notion of a shared network of microwave repeaters and relays in order to alleviate structural costs.
He went further saying another factor was to avoid the appearance of “forests” of mobile telephone antennas and towers which he said would also be detrimental to “aesthetics”.
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