Digicel 'showing' up Cable and Wireless' in the Barbados Telecom market
A Barbadian businessman who is partnering with Digicel says the fact that Cable and Wireless in Barbados is planning concessions to local consumers highlights that company's indifference to consumer needs in the past.
This is the contention of Ralph "Bizzy" Williams, in response to revelations by C&W's chief executive officer, Donald Austin that the telecommunications giant would soon be offering attractive incentives to local consumers. Some of these include cheaper phones, per second billing and calling-party-only-pays rates, according to the Barbados Nation newspaper.
Williams, who is a member of local consortium, Warrens Telecoms, in partnership with Irish telecommunications provider, Digicel, told the Nation the competition which Digicel was bringing to the market was exposing how Barbadian consumers had been treated in the past.
"Monopolies tend to cripple the consumer and local consumers have suffered in the past because Cable & Wireless controlled the market. Digicel's entry into the Jamaican market shook up Cable & Wireless and consumers benefited.
Now they have to wake up herein Barbados," Williams was quoted as saying.
"Before, if you used your cell phone for ten seconds, Cable & Wireless billed you for a minute. If a call dropped out, you got billed for it nonetheless. This adds up to a tremendous amount of money made. Is it only now that Digicel is seeking to compete in the market that Cable & Wireless suddenly realises that these conditions aren't fair to consumers?"
He indicated that the reason he had joined with Simpson Motors' Kyffin Simpson in Warrens Telecoms was due to the importance of communications to the success of their businesses.
"Our businesses depend on efficient, clear and reliable communications. That is why, before there were cell phones, you would see everyone with a radio. But we can't use cell phones at the current rates. They are simply too expensive.
"We are hopeful that Government will give us the licence and opportunity to compete on the local market. Businesses in Barbados, and the average consumer, will benefit fromDigicel's presence," he argued.
Williams also conjectured that C&W's major involvement in the sponsoring of sporting activity in the region might have led to limited focus being previously paid to the very lopsided relationship it enjoyed with Barbadian consumers.
However, the C&W chief, in dismissing Williams' comments, said his company's incentives were not a response to the competition from Digicel, but a process that had started long before the advent of that telecommunications company.
Austin indicated that C&W had been reducing rates, including its Internet and international mobile rates, in response to what has been happening on the worldwide market.
http://www.caymannetnews.com/Archive/Archive%20Articles/January%202003/Issue%20315%20Mon/Digicel%20Showing.html
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