A SENIOR States member has accused the island’s utility regulator of ‘letting down the people of Guernsey’. Yesterday the Office of Utility Regulation announced plans to amend phone operators’ licences to make rival companies share telephone masts.

But Deputy Mary Lowe said this should have been the case from the start and would have avoided putting islanders through ‘years of anguish’.

‘I’m pleased that the OUR is trying to do something, but where have they been over the last few years?’ she said.

‘Since Cable & Wireless and Wave were granted licences, a third operator has always been on the cards, so why has it taken them until now to act?

‘The writing was on the wall years ago and yet the OUR did nothing to ensure that licences had this compliance to share masts. To come in at the 11th hour is better late than never, but it has badly let down the people of Guernsey.’

Deputy Lowe said she was convinced the licence changes had come about as a result of growing public opposition to the masts.

She also dismissed the OUR’s stance that it was the Environment Department’s job to enforce mast sharing.

‘I totally believe this is down to people pressure, because the OUR attended a public presentation of the western parishes and there was no indication it was going to amend the licences then,’ she said.

‘The Environment Department is there to approve and reject plans and deal with planning law, not to get telecoms operators to work together – that’s the responsibility of the OUR as it’s part of the licensing agreement.’

Airtel and Wave have recently made three new applications to erect telephone masts.

The former wants to erect a 15-metre pole, antenna and base station cabinet at Rue de la Lande in Castel.

It also wants to add antennas to an existing telecommunications mast and install base cabinets at Fort George Radio Station in St Peter Port.

Wave has applied for permission to install a GSM antenna on the west face of the bunker at Les Vardes Quarry in St Sampson’s.

OUR director-general John Curran said while he welcomed Deputy Lowe’s support for the proposed licence changes, she appeared to be confused on certain facts.

‘The OUR is first and foremost an economic regulator and cannot act as a planning authority,’ he said.

‘Our understanding is that the Environment Department includes a condition on mobile operators for new sites, which states ﾓthe mast hereby approved shall be made available for sharing in the event of other telecommunications operators requiring facilities in the future to prevent a proliferation of masts in that areaﾔ.

‘However, a sizeable number of mast sites cannot be shared in their current form and this is contributing to the delay in Airtel’s plans.’

Mr Curran added that in the UK, mast-sharing issues were dealt with by planning authorities and the operators concerned and never an economic regulator. Such a system for Guernsey is now under discussion.

‘What the OUR can require is that operators negotiate on sharing where there is a request from an operator, or if there is a dispute this can be referred to the OUR to seek a resolution,’ he said.