REPORT #582 January 2003
DOES BELIZE TELEPHONE EX-MONOPOLY ( hic?) FOLLOW THAT OF CABLE AND WIRELESS IN PANAMA? OR DOES C&W OF PANAMA, COPY BTL IN BELIZE, IN ELIMINATING COMPETITION IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS WITH PUP CABINET MEMBER CRONIES?


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

Is White Collar lawyer politician crime rampant in the Belize Governing system? ( "Judge them by what they do, not by what they say!" It's your vote, judge for yourself. ) -------------------------------------------------------

News article flash!

C&W gets 32 competitors, but resists in the key sector

The UK-based Cable & Wireless phone company, in trouble all across the world, is maintaining its stranglehold on fixed telephone service in Panama despite the January 1 end of its legal monopoly and a mob of companies interested in competing in that sector. Several members of President Moscoso's cabinet sit on the Cable & Wireless Panama board of directors, and the Public Services Regulating Board (Ente Regulador) has issued a series of rulings that effectively prevent competition. Two key decisions are propping up the continuation of C&W's monopoly and high rates. First, a "contract" between C&W and Galaxy, a company whose CEO is a close relative of C&W's chief executive here, is being treated by the board as the benchmark for the interconnections rates that all other companies must pay. Galaxy will not be a realistic competitor, and primarily exists to ensure that no others enter the market. The Ente Regulador has also turned down BellSouth's petition to use its wireless network, now used for cellular service, to create a wireless fixed phone networks. Interpreting a provision in BellSouth's cell phone concession to exclude other uses, the board is requiring the company to use C&W's wires at rates that would make competition unprofitable. Cable & Wireless is losing several monopolies, and most of the 32 new companies getting into the telecommunications industries are only looking to fill small niches. Some companies want to provide fixed phone service in the Colon Free Zone, the Panama City banking district and some upscale neighborhoods in the capital, while many new companies are going into the national and international long-distance business. Only BellSouth and a few others want to fight C&W for the main part of their business, but so far they are being prevented from doing so.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Caribbean countries of St. Vincent-the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad-Tobago, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Antigua-Barbuda, along with Jamaica, have recently cancelled the fixed line phone monopoly that C&W had enjoyed in those countries. In another Caribbean setback, the Supreme Court of Jamaica has held that the interpretation of C&W's international long distance monopoly to bar Internet telephony is unconstitutional. That ruling, on a subject analogous to a case now pending before Panama's high court, may be appealed to the new Caribbean Court of Appeals. And has not been addressed in Belize yet.

Back to Main Belize Development Trust Page

Maintained by Ray Auxillou, Silvia Pinzon, MLS, and Marty Casado. Please email with suggestions or additions for this Electronic Library of Belize.