Ross Sheil, Staff ReporterFULL SERVICE to incoming international calls should be resumed this weekend, Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Science, Commerce and Technology, announced yesterday.
He said another international carrier had complied with the new telecommunications levy at 3:30 p.m. yesterday.
David Hall, Digicel Chief Executive Officer told The Gleaner: "We have got a verbal agreement with another and after that, we don't have much more (time) to go before the last carrier signs."
The levy which came into force 12:01 a.m. Wednesday is charged on incoming calls at two US cents per minute for calls to cellphones and three US cents per minute for landlines. The revenue, expected to reach $1 billion per year, will be allocated by the Universal Service Fund Company Limited to fund the three-year e-Learning programme, commencing this year.
FAILED TO COMPLY WITH LEVY
Three international carriers from the United States, MCI, Sprint, AT&T Wireless and British Telecom had their calls into Jamaica blocked when they failed to comply with the levy.
The three local carriers, Cable & Wireless, Digicel and MiPhone consistently supported the government's position. Had they not blocked the non-compliant international carriers, they would have lost their licenses.
In introducing the levy Mr. Paulwell reasoned that settlement rates, paid by international carriers to local carriers for phone calls, had been reduced in the U.S. without a corresponding increase in call traffic into Jamaica. Local carriers had formerly earned substantial profits from the large volume of overseas originated calls terminated locally.
