Authority forces C&W to up rates

by Sheelagh Doyle

Friday, April 9, 2004

Cable & Wireless has been forced to withdraw some of its recently reduced mobile telephone rates following a ruling by the Information and Communications Technology Authority (ICTA), which has found the prices to be below cost.

The company might also be subject to a possible financial penalty from the ICTA for anti-competitive practices.

On Wednesday the ICTA released a statement saying that four of C&W’s post-paid plans, one of its pre-paid plans and three of its mobile IDD rates failed to satisfy the required tests and would have to be adjusted.

The ICTA also ordered that C&W cease to charge substantially different mobile rates for on-net and off-net calls, cease to waive termination charges only for C&Ws’ TDMA customers who migrate to C&W GSM plans and withdraw all advertising that does not clearly describe the services and the rates for such services.

C&W rates first came under scrutiny by ICTA at the beginning of March following price reductions of up to 67 percent. The ICTA requested further details from C&W regarding its reductions and recommended that it delay its price reductions until it had been established that it was acting competitively. C&W opted to hold firm and introduced the reductions, saying it was confident that it would stand up to the ICTA's scrutiny.

In response to the ICTA ruling, C&W issued a statement saying that it was currently reviewing the 50-page document detailing the findings, but did not specifically say what its action would be.

Corporate Communications Manager, Andrea Fa’amoe said, “It will naturally take some time for us to go through all the details to determine exactly what the ICTA findings are, the rationale for them, and our appropriate response.”

Ms Fa’amoe added, “C&W will continue its promise to bring the best possible prices to our customers in the Cayman Islands. This is what we understood competition was supposed to bring. We know our customers want lower prices, so we invite customers to make their views known.”

Both Digicel and AT&T Wireless, the two other companies that recently entered the liberalised telecom market, ending C&W’s more than 30-year monopoly, declined to comment on the ICTA rulings.

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