LIME, Digicel square off

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Following the first phase of liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in 2000, which effectively ended the C&W monopoly, LIME has complained of "monopolistic" behaviour (as has Claro) by Digicel, which has become the market leader in the cellular sub-sector.

LIME, which rebranded in the Caribbean from Cable & Wireless in 2008, issued a statement at about 4:00 pm yesterday claiming that Digicel had that day blocked calls from LIME customers throughout the region who were calling customers of its rival here in Jamaica.

However, in a swift response, Digicel charged that its customers had almost simultaneously began complaining that they appeared to be blocked from calling LIME landlines.

Yesterday, Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) spokesman David Geddes said that the regulator was aware of the dispute but was awaiting detailed information from both parties regarding this most recent complaint.

"We have been aware of an ongoing dispute between LIME and Digicel since late last year," Geddes told the Observer. "The dispute centres on Digicel's interpretation of the Telecommunications Act and the OUR rendered an opinion on this which was that the OUR disagreed with Digicel's interpretation that LIME was engaged in bypass activities, and we secured an understanding from Digicel that they would not disrupt LIME traffic."

Digicel has approximately 1.9 million cellular subscribers; LIME, 660,000 and Claro, before rebranding from MiPhone in late 2008, has 220,000.

LIME said it would be filing an injunction against Digicel, claiming that both yesterday and on December 19 Digicel blocked 80-90 per cent of LIME's international circuit routes.
"LIME is of the view that Digicel is acting in an anti-competitive manner and is seeking to use its dominance to ring-fence its network," said LIME executive vice- president for carrier services, Lawrence McNaughton. "In addition,
Digicel's action directly affects LIME's revenues and its reputation with other international operators. The remit of the liberalisation of the telecommunications industry has failed if Digicel has the power to breach the law and is empowered to act as its own regulator, as it deems fit in order to circumvent the provision of lawful commercial agreements."

McNaughton added that he was unaware of Digicel calls to LIME landlines being blocked.

The accusation, however, has angered Digicel, which has called for a retraction, saying that the LIME version of events was "untrue".

"I am extremely disappointed at the outrageous claims made by LIME/Cable & Wireless today that Digicel has engaged in anti-competitive behaviour," said Digicel Group Chief Executive Officer Colm Delves. "On no occasion has Digicel ever engaged in call blocking of any kind or shown contempt for the interconnection agreements signed with LIME.

Furthermore, and as confirmed to us by the OUR this evening, Digicel is not in breach of any order issued by that office."