LIME and Digicel take the cell war to court

By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-THE top two telecommunications companies in the Caribbean, LIME and Digicel, have taken their rivalry to the courthouse and the media after LIME issued a complaint of “anti-competitive” call blocking against Digicel on Wednesday (Jan. 7).

LIME’s release claimed that Digicel blocked a large percentage of calls from LIME lines across the Caribbean to their customers in Jamaica in an attempt to monopolise one of the most lucrative markets in the region.

LIME’s Caribbean Chief Executive Officer, Richard Dodd called the move “a demonstration of the arrogance of the company [Digicel] and its contempt for the interconnection agreements signed with LIME”, as well as an affront to a previous ruling by Jamaica’s Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) that had ordered both companies to desist from any such action.

“LIME is filing an injunction against Digicel for the action it is taking in Jamaica and wishes to notify its customers trying to make calls to Jamaica’s Digicel customers that LIME will do whatever it takes to restore normal service to all regional customers,” the release went on to say.

According to the Jamaica Gleaner, the injunction orders Digicel to cease and desist from “disrupting, decommissioning or otherwise interfering with the interconnectivity between the parties” for the next 28 days. The matter is expected to be heard before the courts on February 3.

Digicel wasted no time in countering LIME’s statement with a release of their own hours later, calling the accusations by their rival “false”, “defamatory” and an attack on the integrity of their company. 

“I am extremely disappointed at the outrageous claims made by LIME/Cable & Wireless today that Digicel has engaged in anti-competitive behaviour.
 
“On no occasion has Digicel ever engaged in call blocking of any kind or shown contempt for the interconnection agreements signed with LIME,” Digicel Group Chief Executive Officer Colm Delves said in response.

The lead share holder in the sub-region, Digicel further stated that the OUR confirmed to them the same evening they are “not in breach of any order issued by that office” and they would be pursuing counter legal measures against LIME.

Because both parties have chosen to take the matters to the courts there is little the OUR can do to interject at this point and time, a spokesperson for that organisation said.