BVI Extends Telecoms Licences Again

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

02 April 2007

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of the British Virgin Islands has approved a further extension of the existing non-exclusive licences for Cable and Wireless (West Indies) Limited; Caribbean Cellular Telephone Limited; and BVI Cable TV Limited.

The licences are now extended until May 31, 2007, and all terms and conditions of each non-exclusive licence remain valid and effective during the extended period.

According to the BVI government, the action was pursuant to the Telecommunications Act of 2006, which came into effect on October 24, 2006.

Chief Executive Officer of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, David Iverson explained that unexpected delays in the invitation process necessitated the further extension, but revealed that it is likely that the process will soon move forward and culminate in the issuance of new unitary licenses well before May 31.

The BVI government originally intended to issue its new 'unitary' licences by the end of January 2007, the moment when Cable & Wireless's 40-year monopoly licence expired, as part of the liberalisation of the jurisdiction's telecommunications regime. However, the government appears to be unable to decide how many new licences to issue, so that the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has been forced to give numerous previous extensions to existing licence holders, including C&W and CCT Global Communications, which currently holds the only mobile phone services licence in the BVI.

There was also a war of words between these two companies pending the issuance of new licences. CCT Director Meade Malone had accused Cable and Wireless of predatory behaviour, asserting that C&W had attempted to drive CCT into bankruptcy, continued to charge it interconnection rates above its own retail tariffs, and had disrupted CCT's network by testing a wireless communications system over the same frequencies used by CCT.

Cable & Wireless chief executive Vance Lewis denied behaving unreasonably towards CCT, arguing that: "All efforts we have undertaken have been done with government approval and within legal and ethical boundaries. Government owns the frequency, and all of this was accomplished with the understanding that a license was to be received by the end of January 2007."

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