Cable & Wireless, Jamaica's sole provider of fibre-optic link and which is seeking an equity position in a competing provider, should be forced to open up its own network to others, Steve Twomey, managing director of Reliant Enterprise, has charged.

Twomey whose company is a member of the consortium that won one of two bids to build a fibre-optic line from Jamaica, told the Business Observer yesterday that he did not in principle oppose C&W joining the group of investors.

"C&W should be allowed to enter the consortium," - TransCaribbean Cable Company (TCCC) - he said. "But it should also be equally forced to open up its own cable network."

The Business Observer revealed recently that C&W, which now controls the only fibre-optic link between Jamaica and the rest of the world, has been negotiating to join a grouping that secured a licence to build a competing network.

C&W's move came as a surprise because the government, in opening up the bid for the line, had insisted that a break-up of the monopoly was the only way to ensure that Internet connection cost in Jamaica would dramatically fall.

Twomey, who has been a fierce critic of C&W's pricing policies, charged yesterday that it would be wrong that "C&W blocked access to their cable for the last four years, but then be allowed to enter into another cable without opening up theirs".

C&W apparently wants to be a part of the TCCC in order to ensure that it has an alternative fibre connectivity in the event that its main cable line is disrupted, as was the case in September last year when Hurricane Ivan hit Jamaica.

At present C&W does not allow other telecoms to purchase space on the cable, its final frontier of dominance in the telecommunications market, and has been accused of charging Internet rates far beyond the cost of providing the service.

Fibre-optic cable allows efficient transmission of data and telephone calls on a physical line that runs for hundreds of miles on the ocean floor.

C&W's negotiations to enter TCCC comes on the heels of the decision of a rival telecom player, Digicel to pull out of the 38-member TCCC consortium.

There was talk that Digicel, could be intending to invest in another cable group called FibraLink, in an bid to have more influence in the fibre-optic ring. But yesterday Digicel chief executive officer David Hall denied such reports.

"That is correct," he responded when asked whether Digicel would not attempt to enter into partnership with FibraLink.
"We entered the race to build - two other bids won - we wish them luck and look forward to the day where we are offered three options."

"While Digicel will not be participating in developing a fibre-optic cable initiative, this is an important development for Jamaica," added Hall. "We look forward to having three cable providers in the near future, from which to make the best choice for our company, so we can continue to offer the best service to our customers."

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