As reported last week in The Royal Gazette , Cable & Wireless is playing hardball with members of the eastern Caribbean states by announcing plans to leave St. Lucia when its existing monopoly licence expires on March 31, 2001.

"Cable & Wireless will work with the government of St. Lucia to ensure that the transfer of the country's telecommunications operations is as smooth as possible in accordance with the terms of the relevant licences,'' the company stated last week.

This is one battle that looks to become messy. If it wants to get vicious Cable & Wireless could invoke a "poison pill' clause in its existing licence with St. Lucia, which would force the government there to buy out the company's assets and operations.

The purchase is forced if a court finds that through the government's fault Cable & Wireless is unable to make a fair return on investment. In a February 1998 document, Cable & Wireless claimed to have made total capital expenditures of EC$373 million over the previous 10 years, according to the newspaper St. Lucia Star.

The newspaper also quoted unnamed sources as reporting the company had revenues of EC$200 million (US$72.38 million) in 2000. St. Lucia has an estimated population of about 156,000.

"Would the company, that has fattened itself on St. Lucia for more than 40 years, just disconnect communication links among St. Lucians at home and with the outside world?'' the newspaper asked in an editorial.

"Would the company pull out all its cables, take down all its poles, remove its satellite dishes and buildings, and take everything away on a big boat? Is it in the interest of St. Lucia for C&W to leave, if it can? "These are the real questions that Cable & Wireless and the government must answer.'' Indeed. St. Lucia is a pawn in the real battle the company is having with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the related Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTel).

Five of the OECS states, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica, had told the company in early 1999 that they wished to enter into negotiations with Cable & Wireless on a collective basis.

Those meetings broke down on January 31, 2001.

The company's exclusive licences expire in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2004, Grenada in 2013, St. Kitts and Nevis in 2015, and Dominica in 2020. The other OECS members -- Antigua and Barbuda and Montserrat, and two associate members, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla -- were also depending on the outcome of the St. Lucia negotiations to set the tone for their attempts to liberalise their telecommunications sectors.

Cable & Wireless said the St. Lucia government had not outlined "certain fundamental principles'' regarding tariff re-balancing, the phased introduction of competition and a "fair interconnection regime'', language familiar to many who followed the UBP and the PLP's battles with Cable & Wireless in Bermuda.

On February 12, St. Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony said he would address the nation on the topic of life after Cable & Wireless on February 18, after he returns from a Caricom meeting in Barbados. I wonder what all the other Caribbean leaders will be advising him to do? In a press release Mr. Anthony stated that "should Cable & Wireless be unwilling to be a part of this new liberalised environment which will offer better prices, more consumer-oriented services and added potential for employment, the Prime Minister has given the assurance that a smooth transition will take place from Cable and Wireless to a new telecommunications entity.'' Mr. Anthony said that while the St. Lucian government "has no desire or intention to own, manage or operate telephone or other telecom services, now or in the future'', a team would be set up to handle the changeover to this new "entity''.

If this issue goes to the law courts, where it looks like it might end up, the OECS members will gain hope from a recent court decision in Dominica. A ruling in the Dominica High Court in 2000, subsequently upheld by the British Privy Council, found the Cable & Wireless monopoly hindered the constitutional right of Marpin Telecoms, a local company, and its customers to communicate ideas and information.

The Cable & Wireless confrontation in the Caribbean pits the voracious need of a company to make as much profit as it can against the social need of jurisdictions to compete globally with the best technology available to its citizens.

This story has a long way to go before such issues get resolved.

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. Contact Ahmed at editor yoffshoreon.com or (33) 467901474.