Govt. opens market, C&WB's monopoly ends

The government of Barbados officially opened up its telecoms market this week, ending the monopoly of Cable & Wireless Barbados (C&WB) and handing new licenses to three competitors, according to local newspaper Nation News. Operators Antilles Crossing, C&WB, Digicel, and Telebarbados Inc were presented with non-exclusive international licenses. US operator Cingular Wireless will receive its license next week. As a special promotion to celebrate the opening of the market, Digicel dropped its international call rates to the price of a local call for the period February 22 to March 6. "The liberalization of the communications market is significant in stimulating business growth and attracting companies that want to do business in Barbados, which ultimately has a major impact on the economy," Digicel Eastern Caribbean CEO Kevin White was reported as saying. The opening of the market was taken in stride by former exclusive license holder C&WB, which noted that it surrendered its license several years ahead of schedule. "Liberalization has allowed customers to shop around, but having done that, the provider of choice remains obvious," C&WB president Donald Austin said. "The structure changes, you have to change your business model and rather than talk about losses, it is really about how to operate sensibly in a market that has changed," he added. A still-pending issue is whether C&WB will be granted a domestic rate rebalancing as stipulated in the October 2001 MOU it signed with the government. The government and the Free Trading Commission are working to develop a price cap mechanism on domestic and international rates to be put in place by March 31. "It [the price cap mechanism] is not a given. They are now going through the process to see if that is what we are going to have instead," C&WB spokesperson Sara Odle told BNamericas. As the next step in the country's telecoms liberalization effort, the government is determining how or if it will regulate VoIP technology. "We have to look at how the whole regime goes, whether it is going to be subject to price regulation or not or whether it will be a licensing regime," the government's chief telecoms officer Chelston Bourne was quoted as saying. "We're carrying out research at this moment and we will have an answer in about six weeks' time," he added. Meanwhile, a source at competitor Telebarbados confirmed that the firm had acquired a license for a new project to lay a cable to the island.