New Non-Exclusive Licenses for Cable & Wireless

Contact: Roger D. Joseph

Wednesday, October 10, 2001 - The Government of Saint Lucia, on Wednesday, issued new licenses to Cable and Wireless for providing various telecommunications services in Saint Lucia. In a very simple act, that belied the significance of the occasion, Minister for Communications, Works, Transport and Public Utilities, Senator Calixte George, affixed his signature to the documents granting new non-exclusive licenses to the corporate giant that had dominated the region’s telecommunications industry for more than a century.

The new licenses, the minister says, are coming into effect after many months of sometimes-heated negotiations and they bear both historical and economic significance to Saint Lucia and the OECS. They will eliminate the monopoly that Cable and Wireless once held on telecommunications services in Saint Lucia.

According to the minister, the new licenses are for a period of fifteen years and allow Cable and Wireless to operate certain classes of telecommunications equipment here and to provide specific services.  These include licenses for a fixed network, a cellular network and an Internet network as well as the licenses to provide the associated services for these networks.

Senator George says in addition to the new licenses for Cable & Wireless, both at the national and regional level, several very exciting and promising proposals from other service providers are being reviewed and very shortly other licenses for certain services will be granted. He said too, the new arrangements ensure that control of the telecommunications spectrum now rests with the Government of Saint Lucia and that spectrum may now be used as a national resource to spur economic development in that sector. 

“So the future looks quite good,” Minister George said. He also commended the efforts of the OECS in standing firm on the issue of opening up the telecommunications sector.  He believes it augurs well for future regional initiatives. 

Similar non-exclusive licenses are being issued to Cable & Wireless to operate in other countries of the OECS.

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