Cable & Wireless' MonopolyChallenged in the Turksand Caicos Islands
While the public debatecontinues here in Cayman in connection with Cable & Wireless' (C & W) monopolisticposition, and its blocking of Internet Telephony - the Governmentof the sister Dependent Territory of Turks and Caicos Islands,is actually utilizing a new "telecommunications system"- Telephony - provided by a Canadian Company to that Government"telephone service free of any cost to anywhere in theworld" for a full year.
This is according to a newsreport by the Turks and Caicos News which has just come to hand. The full text of thisreport is as follows:
FROM THE TURKS & CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS-
"Government (of Turks& Caicos) 'disses' C&W - tries new telephone system
"GOVERNMENT is currently utilizing a newtelecommunication system offered by a Canadian-based company,free of cost for the next year, which could result in a substantialrevenue loss for Cable and Wireless.
"As of August 3, four Government Departments- the Chief Minister's Office, Ministry of Tourism, Communicationand Transportation, Trade, Ministry of Education and the TouristBoard, can place calls anywhere in the world for the next 12 monthswith no cost borne by Government.
"The intention of the telephone service,offered by DIAL US, is that after the one-year trial service.a contract to provide telephone communication services to theislands could be secured with the TCI Government.
"But with a twenty year contractualagreement signed between Cable and Wireless and Government, whichgave the company exclusive rights to provide tele-communicationsservice to Turks and Caicos Islands, the move is being viewedas a breach of contract.
"Cable and Wireless is crying foul,claiming that DIAL US service is in contravention to a 20 yearcontractual agreement entered into with Government some ten yearsago. Further, they are claiming that they did not even know thatthe service was being utilised by Government.
" "Cable and Wireless knew nothingabout the service", General Manager Dean Boyce told thisnewspaper (TCI Weekly News) during a telephone conversation thisweek.
" "The first time I heard aboutit was a couple of weeks ago (when) I mentioned it to MinisterOswald Skippings, who (the) made a public statement and said theservice was being done for experimental reasons", Boyce said.
"Permanent Secretary in the Ministryof Tourism, Communication and Transportation, Joseph Swan, hassaid that Government is moving towards liberalizing the communicationssystem in the country.
"TRG systems Limited, a company inexistence for the past eight years which manufactured the satellitesystem used in Grand Turk, are claiming that their service willcost considerable less than Cable and Wireless. They estimatethat should a subscriber in TCI utilize their service, a callto the United States would only cost 55 (US) cents per minute.
"John Schnurr, Corporate Counsel forDIAL US, the telecommunications system currently being used byGovernment is hoping that after the year, US DIAL would be giventhe go ahead to supply the Turks and Caicos Islands with an alternativeto Cable and Wireless.
"In a telephone conversation from hisCanadian office with this newspaper (the TCI Weekly News)Schnurrexplained that the new service to Government uses a net savingsof 80 percent of the bandwidth in transmission.
"What we do is digitalise the systemso that when we are talking we are using up the bandwidth andnot paying for the time we speak on the phone", Schnurr said.
"Schnurr claims that their system isclear and limits the echo heard on some long-distance connections.
" "Let me put it this way: Thelast time I was in Providenciales and I went to check my e-mail;it cost me $15 and your transmission on internet is at best 14-4speed. We can deliver 128K - three times faster than the one currentlybeing used and at a less cost."
"DIAL US service has come at a timewhen Cable and Wireless is involved in massive promotional campaigns,which advertise a Smart Choice plan.
"Several of the campaigns offer freephones, call waiting, call forwarding and several other featuresin plans with weekend reduction rates up to 60 cents a minute.
"When asked why the Government of TCIcommit to accompany that is relatively young as opposed to a companythat has been in the Caribbean for over 100 year, Schnurr responded:"Cable and Wireless has been the monopoly 100 plus years.and yet when I go home in Canada the clarity is bad, the echois large and the service is substandard in comparison with NorthAmerica. Why should we not be trusted."
"Meanwhile, Cable and Wireless is hopingto negotiate with Government over the next few months to resolvethe current situation. It is not the intention to take legal actionagainst the Government at this time.
"Most of our profits are generatedfrom certain services. For example international services. Weuse these profits to provide services to the community, so werely on these profits to plow back into the community. So if Governmentis going to opt for an alternative, they are going to not provideus with those revenues that would otherwise (benefit) the community",Cable and Wireless' General Manager, Dean Boyce said.
"Boyce said that Cable and Wirelesswas not opposed to liberalising telecommunications in TCI, butthat it should be done "cautiously".
"What Cable and Wireless is tryingto do throughout the Caribbean is to remove all our exclusivemonopolies in each country", Boyce said, adding though, thatin the TCI case, "if other telecommunications services shouldprovide services here, there should be a level playing field."
- End of Turks and Caicos News Report
In the Turks and CaicosGovernment's agreement with Cable and Wireless, there is a clausewhereby the Government has the right to secure of negotiate telephonyservices outside of the Cable and Wireless agreement.
In the case of the currentissue with Net2Phone and other providers of telephony servicesin the Cayman Islands, the agreement signed between the Cayman'sthen ExCo Member for Communications, MLA Linford Pierson and Cableand Wireless, there is no clear indication that the recently developedtechnology of Voice Over Internet (telephony) is included in saidagreement.