Forty applications for land line telephone licences

By McPherse Thompson, Staff Reporter

THE Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) said it has already received more than 40 applications from local companies to compete against telecommunications carrier Cable & Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ) in its domestic and international fixed-link services.

Among the line-up of companies applying for licences to operate a domestic carrier as well as a domestic voice service is the Jamaica Public service Company (JPSCo), now controlled by the United States-based Mirant Corporation, which acquired Government's controlling interest in the entity earlier this year.

The JPSCo, along with Radio Jamaica (RJR), cellular telephone competitor Digicel, and several other companies have also applied for Internet Service Provider (ISP) licences.

Digicel, the first company to offer competition against C&WJ in mobile services, has also applied for licences to operate a domestic carrier service and a domestic voice service. However, manager for communication services at the OUR, David Geddes, said Digicel's licence might preclude it from operating those fixed line services. The licence would not, however, restrain it from operating an Internet service.

The upshot of the move towards what is likely to be a more competitive market structure in telecommunication services is that very soon both residential and business customers will have a more realistic choice of suppliers in both local, long-distance and international services.

Companies have been forwarding their applications to the OUR since July, against the background that under phase two of the liberalised telecommunications sector, which began on September 1, there will be full facilities-based competition in domestic services, including potentially high-speed Internet access using cable television networks and wireless local loop.

Mr. Geddes said the OUR levies an administration fee of $25,000 for processing each application, but the regulatory body's role in the process was confined to making recommendations to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology for the grant of the licences.

The OUR has already made some recommendations on the granting of licences, but, contacted yesterday, a Ministry staff in the telecommunications section was unable to say if any of the applications has been approved. Minister of Industry, Commerce and Technology, Phillip Paulwell, who is responsible for the grant or refusal of the licences, was unavailable for comment.

Asked how many licences the OUR would be recommending, Mr. Geddes said "we have not put a limit on that. It's open-ended."

Licences for domestic carrier service or fixed-link domestic service, will allow companies to establish the physical infrastructure to carry out telephony service locally.

A domestic voice service provider licence will allow companies to sell domestic telephone services whether they have the infrastructure in place or not. This means that those companies would be able to buy voice minutes wholesale from C&WJ or another domestic carriers and then retail it in the form of calling cards, for example, under their own brand names.

International voice service provider licences will allow companies to sell international voice minutes using C&WJ's infrastructure only until March 2003 when the incumbent's monopoly on international incoming and outgoing calls comes to an end.

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