The Gleaner Jamaica | February 6, 2011
Cable and Wireless (C&W), the telecoms company that trades in the Caribbean as LIME, says it has completed the buildout of the US$35 million undersea cable connecting Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic. The cable will enhance ability to carry voice and data traffic in the Caribbean and to compete for business.
“The new system … strengthens LIME’s position as the leading wholesale capacity provider and increases its capability to serve its carrier customers in North and Latin America as well as within the Caribbean,” the CEO of LIME Caribbean, David Shaw, said on Friday.
LIME operates in 13 Caribbean countries and up to a decade ago, had a near monopoly on telecoms services in most of the former British colonies in the region.
struggling
That was until market deregulation and the entry to the region of competitors such as Irishman Dennis O’Brien’s mobile phone company Digicel not only dislodged C&W from market leadership, but left it struggling to regain market share, especially in voice telephony.
In Jamaica particularly, where Digicel has its headquarters, LIME has gone through several reorganisations, spent heavily to upgrade systems, and wracked up big losses.
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