FLOW's Stephen Price Endorses NaRRA Bill, Cites 14-Month Delays for Telecoms Site Approvals

西部分社讯：FLOW Jamaica副总裁兼总经理Stephen Price已表态支持拟议中的国家监管改革局（NaRRA），并表示该国再也无法承受阻碍重要基础设施部署的繁文缛节。

Price周二在Trelawny举行的加勒比公用事业监管机构组织（OOCUR）第20届年会上发言时说："I am happy to see the NaRRA kind of legislation for Jamaica, which is, hopefully, to get stuff done much more efficiently and pushed through so that big projects can get done."

他补充说："It shouldn't have to come to this. We have to find a way how the regulators help in terms of connecting the dots to help us really do the greater good for the country."

Price是以"公用事业对监管的视角：挑战、机遇与经验"为主题召开的公用事业服务提供商圆桌会议的小组讨论嘉宾之一。他在欢迎NaRRA作为一项进步的同时坚持认为，更广泛的监管框架必须与现代电信业所承受的压力同步推进。

"Think about the landscape we are heading into for small developing states like ourselves. Technology is extremely expensive," 他说，并指出消费者将继续承受可负担性的压力。"The cry is always going to be on affordability … and the consumer in our small island and developing space to afford this is a significant cost," Price说，并暗示成本压力将推动该国进一步转向无线方案。"So we are going to have to push for more wireless technology."

然而他警告称，迁移至5G等下一代网络将需要在地面上部署远多于现在的设备。"If we are unlocking faster technology, be it 5G as the case may be, you are going to have to have densities of coverage. And with densities of coverage, you need more towers or poles in order to proliferate the technology right across the country," Price说。

这位FLOW高管将监管阻滞列为最大障碍之一，并透露启用一个电信站点可能需要超过一年时间。"Think about what we have to do to get one site up in my country. It takes an average of probably about 14 months … because I have to go through NEPA (National Environment Protection Agency), Ministry of Health, municipality, all these things in order to get a site up," 他说。

"These are technologies that are used globally. We have done the debunking, but still, we have to go through this process over and over again," Price补充说。

他主张，监管机构与政府部门之间更好的协调，加上更精简的审批流程，将转化为全国范围内更广泛的覆盖。"We could have much more proliferation of coverage right across this country if we were able to unlock that," 他说。

Price还将电信扩张与该国经济产出直接挂钩。"Every single per cent of penetration that we achieve in any country spins off two to three per cent of GDP," 他说。

周二晚间，众议院通过了《国家重建与韧性局（NaRRA）法案》，这是建立一个中央机构以引领牙买加从飓风Melissa中恢复的重要一步。该立法现已提交参议院进一步辩论。