DIGICEL AND Cable & Wireless (C&W) are still discussing rates for their customers to use each other's systems in the Eastern Caribbean, according to a statement from C&W yesterday.
The statement relased by C&W (Jamaica) was in response to a press relase on Tuesday from Seamus Lynch, chief executive officer of Digicel. Mr. Lynch said his company was taking legal action against C&W because it was breaching its interconnect agreement with Digicel by blocking certain international calls to Digicel customers.
"Contrary to claims made by Digicel, Cable & Wireless is not seeking to retract the interconnect agreement signed by Cable & Wireless and Digicel in regard to interconnection in some islands of the Eastern Caribbean," the C&W statement said.
Mr. Lynch had said in his statement, "Cable & Wireless is currently restricting calls from countries where they still maintain a monopoly such as Grenada, Barbados, and Cayman, as well as from international carriers that use C&W to terminate their international calls."
Digicel operates in Jamaica and launched operations in St. Lucia and St. Vincent last month. It is currently setting up operations in Grenada, Barbados, Aruba and Dominica and has license applications pending in the Turks & Caicos islands, Trinidad & Tobago and the Cayman Islands.
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Cable & Wireless (West Indies) has a well-established base in the region, operating from 17 territories.
"The agreement in question, specifically provides that the parties will negotiate incoming international termination rates to take into account international settlement rates," the C&W statement said. "Cable & Wireless is seeking to negotiate a rate which covers costs in accordance with what was agreed."
Cable & Wireless said in its statement that it, "remains committed to continuing the discussions between the two companies as it relates to the contract agreed to between the two parties."
