The Bureau Telecommunications and Post St. Maarten (BTPSXM) is tasked with regulating the Telecommunications and Post Industries on St. Maarten, to support and advice the Minister of Tourism Economics Affairs Traffic and Telecommunications on matters and policies relating to these industries. In light of this task execution the BTPSXM will place special focus on the television provisioning on St. Maarten.
The BTPSXM is developing and will present to the Minister within short quality of service standards for all participants in the Telecommunications and Broadcasting industry to comply with, so including that segment that provides television services on St. Maarten irrespective of the means/ technology used. Much attention is needed in this segment of the industry to ensure customer satisfaction and affordable access for all to such services.
The current imbalance in this segment of the industry needs to be addressed as the television provisioning through satellites directly competes with the television provisioning by license holders on St. Maarten. The license holders on St. Maarten are obligated to pay annual license fees for their right to offer services on St. Maarten and have to comply with conditions of their license that stipulate that they must be in possession of an agreement for each channel offered on St. Maarten. Due to US regulations, that has proven to be a problem resulting in the license holders not being permitted to offer certain channels. Any channel offered without an agreement and payment of royalties will result in huge damage claims, for which the country can be held responsible. Satellite providers who sell the hardware (satellite dishes and boxes) do not fall under any regulation, whilst a license is required for anyone or entity that provides content/programming on St. Maarten.
The BTPSXM shall therefore focus on addressing the problems faced by the license holders on St. Maarten and formulate recommendations to the Minister on how to address these problems. The aim is to ensure that the product offered by the license holders meets the quality of service standards and is accessible to all on St. Maarten. Having excellent television provisioning on St. Maarten will benefit the people of St. Maarten and will support the further economic growth of the country.
This release answers to any misconceptions that may have been created to misconstrued words of the Director.
The Director.