Steve Twomey (standing), one of the spokespersons for the lobby group, Jamaica Competitive Telecommunications Association (JCTA) making a point at the JCTA launch at the Pegasus Hotel yesterday in Kingston. Beside him is David Goldson, JCTA spokesperson and director at Knutsford Communications. Twomey is also president of Reliant Enterprise Ltd.

A lobby group created largely by new entrants in the telecommunications industry yesterday vowed to take legal action against the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) for failing, they said, to properly regulate aspects of the rates charged by Cable and Wireless Jamaica (C&W).

"We expect to go to the tribunal in 10 days," Harold Brady, a lawyer representing the group called the Jamaica Competitive Telecommunications Association (JCTA), told the Business Observer.

At a press conference yesterday the group charged that C&W was allowed by the utilities regulator to "double" the rates it charged other telecoms providers to transfer calls to its landlines.

The OUR will face an independent tribunal to answer the charges.

In a response yesterday, the OUR said it was currently investigating whether C&W was charging above cost for the service, but stressed that the company was allowed to increase the rates in the interim.

Brady said he would seek a fast track of the tribunal's ruling, but that JCTA could also file a court action against the OUR.

"The rates ought not to move unless the increase can be justified by C&W...that its costs increased," he said.

Brady's argument is that C&W is to increase the rates only if its cost for providing the service increase, and that the OUR had to establish that the increase was cost-based, something he claims, the OUR did not do.

"The OUR did not follow the statutory procedure," he charged.

At yesterday's press conference, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Brady stressed that the court was still an option for the organisation he represented.

"The tribunal will make its decision in a timely fashion having regard for the fact that regulation in the telecommunications industry requires expedience...but it does not mean that we would not have access to the courts," he said.

The dispute began apparently, after the OUR announced that beginning January 24 this year, C&W would be allowed to charge other Jamaican carriers no more than US five cents per minute, to transfer calls to landlines. Prior to this directive, C&W charged on average, US2.6 cents per minute.

At the same time, the OUR established a flooring for the rates that local telephone firms could charge international carriers to deliver calls into Jamaica - US8.1 cents per minute (approximately J$49).

With this rate structure, the telecom upstarts would be able to charge US carriers US8.1 cents to accept their calls into Jamaica, and then pay C&W no more than US five cents to deliver the calls to its land-based customers, allowing them to make a spread on the transaction. The move was meant to provide stability to the industry after the US carriers slashed the amounts paid to Jamaican carriers.

But yesterday, Steve Twomey, spokesperson for JCTA and president of Reliant Enterprise Ltd, claimed that C&W did not increase its base rate to US carriers to the minimum US8.1 cents, and was therefore able to take customers from other carriers.

"The OUR was aware that C&W ignored the order yet they did nothing," claimed Twomey. "As a consequence, the industry was put in a situation where we have not been able to compete and still cannot."

JCTA says that it wants fair and transparent regulation in the sector.

"The regulator can make our break an new industry and the association wants to assure they are acting in every one's best interest," said Twomey.

The companies involved in the joint action against the OUR are: Reliant Enterprise; Knutsford Telecom; Callworks; Touchpoint; and NewGen Technologies; InfoChannel and Merit Communications.

Other members of JCTA not involved in the legal action are: Jamaica Network Access Point; Telecommunications Alliance; Caribtel and People's Telecom.

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