Monopoly is not the way to go
published: Thursday | September 22, 2005

THE EDITOR Sir

THERE WAS once upon a time when a lot of Jamaican consumers could not afford a cellular phone. This courtesy was only extended to the privileged few. With the introduction of companies like Digicel and Centennial, even the homeless can now afford a phone with ease. With competition, came competitive prices. Digicel came into the market and not only were they offering much more reasonable prices, they were offering better phone services. A lot of Jamaicans started to switch to Digicel, so what did Cable and Wireless do? They started to lower their prices and upgrade their cellular phone services.

I think it is full time now for a new land-line phone company to enter into the picture. Cable and Wireless is taking advantage of the whole monopoly situation because they know that consumers only have two choices. It is either we pay their exorbitant prices or we do without a land phone. A lot of persons can always say that they don't need a land phone because they have their cellular, but the land phone is really necessary at times, you get only so much time on a cellular and sometimes you have business calls to make.

I cannot even plead with the heads of Cable and Wireless to look into themselves, because for them, it is all about the profit. That is the bottom-line, to hell with their poor customers. The Government needs to allow other companies to enter the market to give Cable and Wireless a run for their money because anywhere there is monopoly in a system, there are exorbitant prices.

I am, etc.,

MARITA WILLIAMS

Duhaney Park

Kingston 20