While revenues remained flat for Cable & Wireless Communications (C&WC) in the first half of its fiscal year, ended September 30, the company remains optimistic it can turn around its fortunes in the Caribbean despite the difficult economy by focusing on consumer bundles and enterprise services.

Caribbean mobile revenues declined 3% to US$143mn. In Jamaica, where the company faces stiff competition in mobile from Digicel and in broadband from cable operator Flow, mobile revenues increased driven by growth in inbound roaming.

C&WC CEO Tony Rice said its Caribbean unit (LIME) is focusing on building up a TV offering to start marketing triple play services in the second half of its fiscal year in Jamaica and Barbados.

On the mobile side, Rice confirmed that plans are on track to introduce HSPA+ in Barbados and the Bahamas before year-end.

C&WC has also been building up its offer of enterprise managed services and social telecoms services, where the company deploys technology for projects such as video surveillance infrastructure for police and telemedicine services. These projects have been largely deployed in Panama and other Central American countries, but the idea is to spread them throughout the Caribbean as well.

As regards expansion, Rice said C&WC will "probably" refrain from participating in the spectrum auction announced in October by Dominican Republic telecoms regulator Indotel saying the company’s strategy is not one of grabbing spectrum and building Greenfield operations.

Indotel plans to auction off spectrum in 941-960 MHz and 1,710-1,755 MHz/2,110-2,155 MHz in a move to attract a fifth mobile competitor that would add to the existing players of Claro (América Móvil), Orange (France Telecom), Tricom (Amzak) and Viva (Trilogy International).

Elsewhere in the Caribbean:

Puerto Rico

-Mobile operator Open Mobile announced plans to launch what it claims will be the first LTE service in Latin America before year-end with Ericsson deploying the infrastructure.

Open Mobile - which offers unlimited calling and broadband plans - currently provides speeds of 600-800 Kbps and said that could soon reach 10 Mbps.

However, competitor AT&T seems intent to steal its thunder and revealed it would launch commercial LTE services in San Juan on November 20 as part of an expansion of its LTE network into six new markets.

Claro Puerto Rico is reportedly planning to be the third to launch LTE in Puerto Rico early next year while Sprint's is expected to launch later in 2012.

Bermuda

-A legal spat between Digicel and Bermudean long distance providers over the last few weeks ended in favor of the later after Bermuda’s Supreme Court ordered Digicel to cease providing access to its internet-based long distance service.

The ruling was a reverse of a previous ruling that went in favor of Digicel. Bermudan long distance telephony provider TeleBermuda International started legal proceedings against Digicel, saying it believed the operator had infringed on its class B license in offering long distance ahead of telecoms legislation reform expected to be tabled in congress in November to liberalize the sector.

Digicel began offering the service under the Digicel brand name through Transact, which it acquired. This led it into competition with TBI and LinkBermuda.

Digicel is now offering  internet service plans starting from US$25 per month for 1MB up to US$120 for 8MB.

Jamaica

-Jamaica's government is testing the implementation of cloud computing services to automate its public services, the communication ministry said.

Antigua and Barbuda

-Antigua and Barbuda's government has threatened to introduce new competition to the telecommunications market if the country's four established companies fail to indicate by next month their intention to introduce 4G technology.

The government will offer incentives to companies that deploy 4G technology as it moves to establish itself as the Caribbean's ICT capital, telecommunications minister Edmond Mansoor was quoted as saying.

"We are simply saying to the existing telecommunication providers that if the government of Antigua and Barbuda does not receive a written assurance by November 30 of this year that they have intentions to deploy a 4G platform in Antigua, that the government of Antigua and Barbuda would consider licensing a new entrant into the marketplace, specifically to bring 4G long-term evolution technology," Mansoor stated.

The country's main mobile operators include Digicel, the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) and LIME, the Caribbean business of Cable & Wireless Communications (C&WC).

Regional

-The Inter American Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Association of Telecommunications Operators (CANTO) announced a partnership to accelerate broadband development in the Caribbean following the CANTO-IDB Broadband Forum held in Miami on November 7.

The IDB said the bank was committed to providing technical and other assistance to the Caribbean to accelerate penetration and use of broadband, focusing on the areas of policy, strategic regulation, infrastructure development and capacity building.

Representatives from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), CANTO, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) committed to identifying broadband initiatives to be presented at the ITU Summit of the Americas, to be held in Panama on July 17-19 next year.

-Officials from the CTU have begun preliminary work on Montserrat national ICT policy, strategy and implementation plan, which the CTU was contracted by the communications, works and labor ministry to carry out.

Over the next three months, telecommunications and business development specialists will be meeting with public and private sector representatives to assess Montserrat's ICT needs.

The core objectives are to conduct an environmental review in relation to ICT, assess e-readiness and develop ICT needs.

-Education software company idoodlesoftware has partnered with Columbus Communications to facilitate an eLearning strategy for the Caribbean.

The two companies will be holding discussions with ministers of education, technology and economic development and other education stakeholders to develop and facilitate an education strategy for the more than 4mn primary and secondary students in the region.