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Paulwell moving to break C&W's monopoly
WESTERN BUREAU -
MINISTER OF Commerce and Technology Phillip Paulwell says Jamaica will sign a Memora-ndum of Understanding in mid-February with IRIDIUM, a North American based Infom-atics Company to provide a new satellite-linked mobile communications system, the Global Mobile Personal Communica-tion System (GMPCS).
"This will allow individuals to utilise a Telecom facility installed in one location but can be used in any part of the world," Minister Paulwell told journalists in Montego Bay on Friday. Minister Paulwell's signature on the MOU will mean the immediate availability of the facility locally and this "should augur well for the tourism sector," the minister said. He added that competition from at least three other companies is expected shortly.
The Commerce and Techno-logy Minister said Govern-ment's new Telecom policy allows for the introduction of such services, and such a move will further erode Cable & Wireless' (C&W), monopolistic claim on the telephony sector region-wide. The Minister was a participant of the seventh annual meeting of the Executive Council of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) held at the Holiday Inn in Montego Bay on Friday.
"Jamaica is among the first of the Caribbean nations to give an indication to break lose of C&W's hold on the Telecom market and will be the first to sign on to GMPCS," said Secretary General of CTU Roderick Sanatan. Plan of action According to Sanatan, countries across the region have expressed dissatisfaction with the "monopolistic operations" of C&W. CTU is therefore advocating a plan of action to be dealt with in "1999 so that the year 2000 is entered on a clear understanding."
The status of the negotiations of the telecommunications monopoly licenses region-wide, was the focus of the agenda of the CTU meeting. As such, it was accepted that the region needed to "adopt a common strategy and approach, C&W and Public Licenses Company-UK, with some urgency, to speedily make the necessary adaptations to introduce competition in the Telecom sector in the region," Minister Paulwell said. Members of the Union have agreed to forward these recommendations to the next CARICOM Heads of Government meeting for ratification. The CTU was established by CARICOM and is specialised to handle Telecom policies of the region.
WESTERN BUREAU -
MINISTER OF Commerce and Technology Phillip Paulwell says Jamaica will sign a Memora-ndum of Understanding in mid-February with IRIDIUM, a North American based Infom-atics Company to provide a new satellite-linked mobile communications system, the Global Mobile Personal Communica-tion System (GMPCS).
"This will allow individuals to utilise a Telecom facility installed in one location but can be used in any part of the world," Minister Paulwell told journalists in Montego Bay on Friday. Minister Paulwell's signature on the MOU will mean the immediate availability of the facility locally and this "should augur well for the tourism sector," the minister said. He added that competition from at least three other companies is expected shortly.
The Commerce and Techno-logy Minister said Govern-ment's new Telecom policy allows for the introduction of such services, and such a move will further erode Cable & Wireless' (C&W), monopolistic claim on the telephony sector region-wide. The Minister was a participant of the seventh annual meeting of the Executive Council of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) held at the Holiday Inn in Montego Bay on Friday.
"Jamaica is among the first of the Caribbean nations to give an indication to break lose of C&W's hold on the Telecom market and will be the first to sign on to GMPCS," said Secretary General of CTU Roderick Sanatan. Plan of action According to Sanatan, countries across the region have expressed dissatisfaction with the "monopolistic operations" of C&W. CTU is therefore advocating a plan of action to be dealt with in "1999 so that the year 2000 is entered on a clear understanding."
The status of the negotiations of the telecommunications monopoly licenses region-wide, was the focus of the agenda of the CTU meeting. As such, it was accepted that the region needed to "adopt a common strategy and approach, C&W and Public Licenses Company-UK, with some urgency, to speedily make the necessary adaptations to introduce competition in the Telecom sector in the region," Minister Paulwell said. Members of the Union have agreed to forward these recommendations to the next CARICOM Heads of Government meeting for ratification. The CTU was established by CARICOM and is specialised to handle Telecom policies of the region.
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