4G is making strides in the Dominican Republic in terms of both WiMax and LTE. Meanwhile, the proposed sale of mobile operator Claro to Digicel continues to cause concern for market observers and the government has yet to make a decision on whether it permits it or not.

Starting in the Dominican Republic, Cable & Wireless Communications (C&WC) has signed a contract with the telecoms regulator, Indotel, to become a local broadband network provider with an investment of 175mn pesos (US$4.6mn).

The contract will allow C&WC to provide telecoms carrier services throughout the Dominican Republic under its commercial brand in the Caribbean, LIME.

Under the contract, CW&C will develop submarine fiber optic cable for the country's east-west cable (Cable Este Oeste) project and will provide services through installing, operating and maintaining an international transmission system.

Also in the Dominican Republic, Ericsson has carried out an LTE demonstration for local mobile operator Orange Dominicana. The test was conducted on the premises of Orange R&D skill center at Santo Domingo's cyber park.

Martin Roos, head of Ericsson's Caribbean customer unit, said the Dominican Republic is one of the first countries in Latin America to perform these demos under the same standards used by commercial networks in Europe, China and India.

Moving onto Haiti, telecoms provider Access Haiti has signed a loan agreement for up to US$3.5mn from the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) to enable the operator to expand internet coverage and upgrade its telecoms network.

The loan will also be used to purchase, install and operate wireless telephone and digital television services.

In Jamaica, the government will look to replace the Universal Access Fund (UAF) used to finance the country's e-learning program, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said.

He said the fund, which was established in 2005 to finance the project, needs to be replaced because the government is moving beyond the e-learning program's original scope.

According to Golding, the program - which aims to create an island-wide broadband network, allowing public access through schools, public libraries, post offices and other agencies - faces problems when it takes computers to schools not prepared to receive the equipment.
Contributions to the fund are also a concern, as it is financed by a tax charged to foreign telcos for calls ending in Jamaica. That levy has been unpopular with foreign carriers.

In other news, concern remains in the Jamaican market about the proposed sale of mobile operator Claro to Digicel, which would end up having an even stronger market position than that it enjoys today.

Paul Morgan, spokesperson for the Organization of Caribbean Utility Regulators (OOCUR) expressed concern that Jamaican law is lacking when it comes to controlling mergers and acquisitions.

Morgan, who is a former head of Jamaican utility regulator OUR, said that decisions regarding mergers and acquisitions rest more with the minister of information and telecommunications and the fair trading commission.

Irish-owned Digicel Group announced in mid-March an agreement with Mexican mobile telephony giant América Móvil to acquire AMX's Claro business in Jamaica, while at the same time selling its businesses in Honduras and El Salvador to América Móvil.

OUR numbers from 2010 gave Digicel a 73% share of the mobile market, followed by Cable & Wireless Communications - which goes under the LIME brand name - with 20%, and then Claro with 7%.

Still in Jamaica, UK-owned telecoms company LIME, a unit of Cable & Wireless Communications (C&WC), formed a partnership with teleconferencing solutions company Polycom to provide telepresence and video communications products.

LIME can provide collaboration tools for sharing graphics, presentations and rich-media content. LIME will install the technology and provide training.

And finally the National Regulatory Telecommunications Commission (NTRC) of St Kitts and Nevis has opened a public consultancy on the level of quality of phone service.

Telcos and the public were notified of the probe. The phone companies are required to provide the NTRC with quality of service information, while consumers are being asked to submit their experiences with the services provided by the companies.

Submissions should reach the NTRC no later than May 12.