Two bidders remain at the negotiation table with the Jamaican government for the acquisition of a fourth mobile licence that the government is seeking to sell. The licence was placed on the auction block last November after AT&T Wireless surrendered it to government, having sold its stake in the Caribbean to Cingular.

Collin Campbell, information minister

Information minister, Colin Campbell, who was head of the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA) when the process was initiated, has declined to reveal the names of the bidders, saying only that "one is a UK firm and the other is an American-firm registered in Barbados".
"They propose to use two different types of technology - GSM and CDMA," Campbell added.

As a condition of the licence, the licensee will have to "build out infrastructure to provide service to 90 per cent of the island - virtually island-wide," according to Campbell.

This process would be "time bound", he said, which means that the licence holder would have to provide service within a specific timeframe.

Campbell said that similar timeline would be afforded the new investor for the providing of service as was negotiated with the other two mobile operators that came into the Jamaican market after 1999 - Digicel and MiPhone.

Within the licence agreement provided to AT&T back in 2004, (the same licence now being auctioned) the government authorised that "the use of any frequency by the licensee may be withdrawn by the minister (Paulwell) after one month's notice to the licensee if the frequency remains unused by the licensee for twelve consecutive months".

The government expects to get $360 million from the sale of the licence, according to technology minister, Phillip Paulwell. In the financial statements and revenue estimates for the current fiscal year running to March 31, 2007, $356 million was tabled for collections on telecommunications licence fees.

In January, Campbell told the Observer newspaper that four telecoms providers - three foreign and one local - had expressed interest in the cellular licence that went to auction in November.

The auction was to have taken place between December 5, 2005 and January 5, 2006. The preferred bidder would have been announced on January 15, 2006, and issued the licence by February 1, 2006.

But Campbell said the firms were unable to complete their "packages" due in part to interruption from the Yuletide season, and were given an extension to complete their bids. Only the two firms now in discussions returned to the bargaining table.

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