MANCHESTER, Jamaica – Garfield Sinclair, managing director of full service telecommunications provider LIME, said that while the company seeks to expand its reach through the recent acquisition of Columbus Communications (Flow) and Dekal Wireless, copper cable theft continues to stifle the growth of its operations.

In addressing a Manchester Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet at the Golf View Hotel on the weekend he said that LIME has lost more than $400 million over the past twelve years in copper cable and equipment theft and vandalism.

Sinclair noted too that there have been “untold amounts” of loss in business and essential services productivity and highlighted Central Jamaica as one of its problem areas.

“More recently we’ve been experiencing a sharp rise in the incidence of cable theft, mainly in parts of where Northern Manchester meets Clarendon. Schools, police stations, health facilities, business and residential customers have all been badly affected by these more frequent and unwarranted disruptions and it can’t stop fast enough for us,” he said.

Sinclair urged legislators “to act extremely quickly on this matter”.

“This is an urgent matter with potentially very serious public safety and national security implications,” he said.

Alicia Sutherland