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Telecommunication company LIME says it is extremely disturbed at the news that former Prime Minister Andrew Holness has rescinded what it calls a critical stipulation in the terms of the Digicel/Claro merger without concurrently passing the promised legislation to facilitate a meaningful reduction in rates and safeguard the telecoms industry.
Before demitting office, Holness acceded to an appeal by Digicel to operate Claro as part of its network instead of as two separate networks.
“We are equally dismayed at press reports attributed to Digicel, that Claro customers will retain their Claro phone numbers when they are involuntarily transferred by Digicel to their network,” said a LIME spokesperson in a statement this afternoon.
According to LIME, this would be a clandestine and privileged introduction of local number portability which appears to have been specially granted only to Digicel.
"This again gives the dominant player in the market an unfair competitive advantage and denies Claro customers of any real choice in the matter," said the LIME spokesperson.
LIME said at every opportunity, it made clear to the previous Government and the regulators, that the proposed merger was bad for competition and therefore bad for Jamaica, if the current inadequate legislative and regulatory environment remained unaddressed.
Yesterday, Holness explained that he was not able to bring the Claro matter to the House of Representatives because the Parliament had been prorogued.
However Holness said the matter was on his priority list had the Jamaica Labour Party been returned to power.
When then Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced that the Government had approved the Digicel/Claro merger, he announced that Digicel would have cut its cross network peak rates by $3 and its off-peak cross network rates by $2.
Golding had said his administration would be bringing legislation to Parliament within six weeks to address the rate issue, but eighteen weeks later, there is still no legislation.
“We believe that Mr. Holness’ removal of this critical condition, without the passing of the emergency legislation to safe guard the industry, has grave implications for the future of Jamaica’s telecommunications industry,” LIME said.
LIME wants the new Government to immediately implement the emergency legislation and overhaul the regulatory framework of the telecoms industry
Before demitting office, Holness acceded to an appeal by Digicel to operate Claro as part of its network instead of as two separate networks.
“We are equally dismayed at press reports attributed to Digicel, that Claro customers will retain their Claro phone numbers when they are involuntarily transferred by Digicel to their network,” said a LIME spokesperson in a statement this afternoon.
According to LIME, this would be a clandestine and privileged introduction of local number portability which appears to have been specially granted only to Digicel.
"This again gives the dominant player in the market an unfair competitive advantage and denies Claro customers of any real choice in the matter," said the LIME spokesperson.
LIME said at every opportunity, it made clear to the previous Government and the regulators, that the proposed merger was bad for competition and therefore bad for Jamaica, if the current inadequate legislative and regulatory environment remained unaddressed.
Yesterday, Holness explained that he was not able to bring the Claro matter to the House of Representatives because the Parliament had been prorogued.
However Holness said the matter was on his priority list had the Jamaica Labour Party been returned to power.
When then Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced that the Government had approved the Digicel/Claro merger, he announced that Digicel would have cut its cross network peak rates by $3 and its off-peak cross network rates by $2.
Golding had said his administration would be bringing legislation to Parliament within six weeks to address the rate issue, but eighteen weeks later, there is still no legislation.
“We believe that Mr. Holness’ removal of this critical condition, without the passing of the emergency legislation to safe guard the industry, has grave implications for the future of Jamaica’s telecommunications industry,” LIME said.
LIME wants the new Government to immediately implement the emergency legislation and overhaul the regulatory framework of the telecoms industry
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