Jamaica's telecommunication regulator - the Office of the Utilities Regulation (OUR) - will today begin a review of its controversial intervention in the international calling market which was met with resistance from the newly formed telecommunication lobby group.

The OUR is seeking comments from the public and the telecommunications industry, in order to make a final determination next month.

"We will notify the public that a consultation has been issued on the settlement rates (today)," Maurice Charvis, director of analysis and research at the OUR, told the Business Observer.

The move follows a ruling by the independent telecommunication tribunal two weeks ago to allow the OUR to retain its controversial rates set in late January. But yesterday, Charvis said that the OUR was committed to reviewing the rates regardless of the tribunal's decision.

"We promised a review from the outset," he said. "It was never our intent to cast a ruling in stone, but that a review would be done based on the effectiveness of the action and on data received from the industry."

Attempts by the Business Observer to contact the lobby group, Jamaica Competitive Telecommunications Association (JCTA), for comment were futile.

The dispute began after the OUR announced that beginning January 24 this year, telecoms service provider, Cable & Wireless would be allowed to charge other Jamaican carriers no more than US five cents per minute, to transfer calls to its land lines. Prior to this directive, C&W charged on average, US 2.6 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 - US 8.1 cents per minute (approximately J$49).

With this rate structure, the telecom upstarts would be able to charge US carriers US 8.1 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.

In the past, Charvis has said that earnings from international telephone calls from the US to Jamaica had plummeted to US$40 million from a high of US$150 million four years ago.

But the JCTA said that the OUR ruling was reducing local telecoms' profits, and was hurting the industry. Its members said that the OUR had no idea of the costs within the industry.

JCTA had also claimed that C&W did not increase its base rate to US carriers to the minimum US 8.1 cents, and was therefore able to take customers from other carriers.

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