Digicel in battle royal with Cable and Wireless in St Lucia

DENIS O’BRIEN’S Caribbean telecommunications operations is in the wars with Cable and Wireless.

Utilising tactics worthy of Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, O’Brien’s Bermuda registered Digicel took out full-page advertisements in the St Lucia press urging readers not to buy new phones until competition arrived on the scene. Digicel has accused Britain’s Cable and Wireless of stalling talks to set up interconnections in St Lucia’s newly-liberalised telecommunications sector. The two companies said that, although talks were nearly complete, they have not yet finalised an agreement on how to link the two phone companies’ networks directly.

Digicel accused Cable and Wireless of stalling talks and missing meetings to the point of “frustration,” the company’s St Lucia chief operations officer, Donal O’Shaughnessy, said.

Cable and Wireless general manager for St Lucia, Rudy Gurley, said while he understood Digicel was anxious to start service, his company was following a previously scheduled agenda.

Digicel was awarded a licence to operate a cell phone service after Cable and Wireless monopoly in St Lucia and other countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States ended last year. Up to the arrival of Digicel, Cable and Wireless had monopoly-control of the region’s industry for decades.

Over the weekend, Digicel took out full-page advertisements in St Lucian newspapers accusing Cable and Wireless of blocking alternative cellular service. The ads asked whether the delays had anything to do with Cable and Wireless “wanting to stop competition in the Caribbean” and warned St Lucians: “Don’t buy a phone now and be fooled into paying too much. Hold off for competition”

Mr Gurley accused Digicel of trying to speed up negotiations to cash in on the lucrative Christmas season. Mr O’Shaughnessy said he didn’t understand why that would be a problem.