BRIDGETOWN, Barbados-While plans for a second cellular license in Trinidad and Tobago remain stalled by a court action, Jamaica has reaped another windfall with a second license going to Irish company Mossel Ltd.
Mossel, based in Dublin, bid US$47.5 million to operate a GSM 900 network in Jamaica.
The Jamaican government netted US$45 million for the first 800 MHz band license, which Cellular One Caribbean of St. Maarten, a franchise-holder of U.S.-based Cellular One, won at a 17 December 1999 auction. Mossel had made a bid in December, but was disqualified because its offer of 5 percent over the highest bidder did not comply with auction rules.
Buoyed by the response to the first auction, for which the government had set a secret reserve price of US$30 million, the government raised the reserve price to US$40 million for the second license, made the decision public and limited it to those companies that had previously applied.
At Global Wireless press time, neither of the two new cellular operators had released details about a time frame for their launches of commercial service.
In related news, the new telecommunications act received approval in February by both houses of parliament. However, approval was stalled by a walkout by opposition Labor Party senators prior to a vote. Like their colleagues in the lower house, the senators had demanded amendments giving Cable & Wireless fewer concessions, although the majority of the amendments were not added. Approval of the legislation would pave the way for a three-year process of liberalization to begin.
Cable & Wireless, a British multinational, has held a monopoly on domestic and international telecommunications in Jamaica, but Odie Donald, new Cable & Wireless chief executive officer for the Caribbean, has welcomed concerted moves by regional governments to implement competition.
Plans by the government in Trinidad and Tobago to start its liberalization process through competition in cellular remains at a standstill. The bid from Star Telecommunications, one of 15 companies that initially indicated an interest in offering cellular services, is undergoing a judicial review following its rejection by the government’s director of telecommunications.
Bids closed on 30 May 1999. The review will decide whether Star representatives were in the building before the deadline-of 4: 00 in the afternoon-for bids passed, and therefore, whether the company should be considered.
Trinidad and Tobago is preparing for general elections in November and has yet to pass new telecommunications legislation that would outline how it plans to liberalize its market. The government and Cable & Wireless have been at odds over an offer by the multinational company to obtain a controlling stake in Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), the monopoly domestic and long-distance carrier.
Cable & Wireless holds 49 percent of TSTT shares, and the government controls the other 51 percent. The British company had indicated there was a “real possibility” that it will sell its shareholding if government opts to divest its 51 percent. Cable & Wireless said its strategy is to consolidate its international presence and provide outstanding service globally.
