A Jamaican court threw out attempts by LIME Jamaica to block the merger of fellow competitors Digicel and Claro.

LIME alleged that Prime Minister Bruce Golding should not have approved the Digicel-Claro deal on August 30 because it amounted to an abuse of a dominant position and anticompetitive behaviour.

Under the acquisition deal, Digicel will sell its Honduras and El Salvador assets to América Móvil, which in turn will sell its Claro Jamaica business to Digicel.

Golding approved the merger on the condition that Digicel would continue to operate the two networks separately and continue with Claro's commitment to reach network coverage of 90% of the population.

Additionally, the government ordered a regulatory overhaul, which could see greater powers of interconnection rates and also the establishment of a separate telecoms regulator.

Despite these promises and a commitment from Digicel to drop interconnection rates between Digicel and LIME by 16% at peak times, LIME has seemed determined to use legal action to challenge the merger.

But according to local press reports, Supreme Court Judge Bryan Sykes said that the defendants, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and Prime Minister Bruce Golding, had not acted unlawfully, having taken into account the needs of consumers and adhered to the current telecommunications act.

In other news, LIME has launched an HSPA+ network in the Cayman Islands as part of a strategy it announced in May to invest US$80mn in upgrading its networks in 13 Caribbean markets to 3G and HSPA+ (4G) services.

The Cayman HSPA+ network provides 100% coverage of all three Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac).

As part of the launch LIME announced new price plans in Cayman for the services including bundles of voice minutes, texts and mobile data.

LIME Barbados and the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) will be the next C&WC business to launch 4G services later this year.

BTC’s CEO Geoff Houston said the company is investing US$43 million in building out the HSPA+ network. Some of the equipment has already arrived in the country for the "4G service," which will cover New Providence and Grand Bahama.



Digicel Group has entered the fixed-line ISP and long distance market in Bermuda by acquiring local internet service provider Transact.

Digicel will continue providing internet services to Transact customers. Additionally, as part of the acquisition, the company is planning to offer long distance voice services to all of Bermuda, including Digicel customers and any other cellular or fixed-line customers.

In the short term, Transact services will continue to be provided under the company's brand, as will bill payments and service queries.

Puerto Rican mobile operator Open Mobile has selected US provider of customer experience systems Amdocs' Bridgewater advanced policy and subscriber network control solution, for its new long-term Evolution (LTE) network. The Bridgewater solution will enable Open Mobile to rapidly launch new LTE data services.

Still in Puerto Rico, Cable & Wireless Panama (C&WP), the Panamanian business of Cable & Wireless Communications, said it sees Puerto Rico as one of the key growth markets for wholesale communications services due to the growth the island is seeing in data demand.

The company has been undergoing a series of major upgrades to undersea fiber optic networks, which it owns or has a share in.

The Taino cable, upgraded in 2010, connects Puerto Rico with St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The Americas 2 cable connects Panama and Puerto Rico.

In February last year, C&WP participated in the upgrade of the Panam Consortium cable, which connects Arica in northern Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela. The Maya cable - connecting Florida to Colombia, Colón on Panama's Atlantic side, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and the Cayman Islands - had its fourth upgrade this year.

C&WP has identified Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras and Costa Rica as other markets with growing demand for transport capacity and IP transit products.

In May, LIME received a 20-year contract from Dominican Republic telecoms regulator Indotel allowing it to provide services to ISPs in the country. LIME entered the country in February, landing a section of its East-West cable in capital Santo Domingo.