MINISTER OF Industry, Commerce and Technol-ogy, Phillip Paulwell, is dissatisfied with Cable & Wireless Jamaica's handling of the installation of the 217,000 telephone lines which was promised under the company's current monopoly agreement.
"They have reported, and we have not verified it, but they have reported that they have fulfilled the commitment for the first year, which is 100,000 lines. Of course, we are not entirely satisfied with the distribution of the lines, because we would have preferred to see some greater emphasis on rural parishes.
"In the second year, we are going to be emphasising to them that we want to see rural parishes receiving the bulk of the remaining 117,000 lines," Mr. Paulwell said. He was responding to questions from Jamaica Labour Party MP Olivia Grange, during Wednesday's meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives.
C&WJ had agreed to the installation of 217,000 telephone lines, applications for which were on their waiting list as at September 30, 1999, as part of the agreement which gave them a three-year monopoly on wired lines last year.
Mr. Paulwell said that the Government had not been able to exert the kind of pressure it thought it would have on the project and the distribution of the lines had been completely controlled by the company.
Asked by Miss Grange whether the company would be informing him of its plans for the next phase of the project, he said that he would be receiving the full breakdown of the 2001/2002 phase and promised to share the information with the Opposition.
