Karib Cable breaks 170-year monopoly

Telecommunications giant Cable & Wireless (LIME) is no longer the exclusive provider of fixed line telephone service in the Caribbean.{{more}}

On Friday 15th, May 2009, call traffic from LIME began to flow freely to Karib Cable’s customers, ending a lengthy process of negotiations to facilitate this interconnection.

A release from Karib Cable said, “Ten years after the introduction of a competitive environment though liberalisation of the legislation governing telephone services, the company that has profited over 170 years of monopolistic dominance has had to remove all barriers to its competition and now finds Karib Cable providing real choice to the public in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”

Karib Cable’s network also supports Cable TV and High Speed Broadband Internet through one line into the customers’ premises and also provides a consolidated and converged monthly bill for all three services making it easier for customers to manage their Karib Cable account.

“The impact of choice and true competition is already being felt with Karib Cable not only being able to offer significantly lower prices for its local, regional and international call charges but also great savings on the access charges for the services that it provides. Should the customer take up more than one service, then additional discounts are enjoyed creating greater savings,” the release said.

Growth of Karib Cable’s Fixed Line Customer base since the removal of the barrier has been significant, the release said, and despite the world economic downturn, “those savvy customers who have taken up their service are enjoying real and tangible savings.”

The release dated May 20th said Karib Cable is also making a similar challenge to Cable & Wireless (LIME) in St. Lucia where, through its newly installed state of the art fibre optic network, it is expected this quarter to introduce fixed line telephony services to complement its existing offering of digital cable television and high speed broadband internet services.