Hay THE OFFICE of Utilities Regulation (OUR), wants Cable and Wireless Jamaica (C&W) to sort out the problems on its cellular network within three months or risk having its cellular licence suspended.
Winston Hay, Director-General at the OUR yesterday said the company's cellular customers had put up with a poor quality of service for too long and that the utilities watchdog was currently drafting a letter to the company outlining the action it should take.
He warned that the company could be in breach of the Fair Competition Act for advertising services it has failed to deliver at a satisfactory level. The matter was discussed with the Fair Trading Commission yesterday.
Mr. Hay told The Gleaner the poor service being offered by C&W is a breach of the Telecommunications Act. He pointed to Section 44 1C, which states that "the services must be rendered in accordance with the standards reasonably expected of a competent provider of those services."
"We are convinced that they are in default of the requirement of the Act," Mr. Hay said.
He explained that the OUR first wrote to C&W about the deterioration in its cellular service in February 1999. The verbal response he said was that the demand for the service had exceeded projections and that investments would be made to improve the service.
With the continued deterioration, the OUR again wrote to C&W in February 2001, urging it to offer a rebate to its customers because of the poor service. "They responded to say if they were to give a rebate they would be accused of predatory pricing because of the coming competition," Mr. Hay explained. Predatory pricing means providing a service at a price lower than the actual cost of providing the service with a view to drawing customers away from the competition. C&W again said demand was greater than it had planned for and that investments were being made to correct the problem.
But, the OUR is now questioning whether the company can be taken at its word. The Director-General pointed to press advertisements on the weekend which indicate a new switch processor was installed in April, increasing call carrying capacity by 250 percent. "We don't know of anybody who has seen any improvement from the introduction of that," Mr. Hay remarked. "So we are being led to question whether Cable and Wireless is telling the truth about its investment programme," he added.
While the OUR was limited in what it can do, it will recommend to the Minister with portfolio responsibility that the company's licence be suspended if there are no tangible improvements after three months. However, Mr. Hay is reluctant to go that route, pointing out that it would mean further inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of customers.
