Digicel challenges service monopoly
Published: Wednesday | May 13, 2009
Digicel Group, a Caribbean mobile phone company, is challenging a United States-owned firm's monopoly over international cellphone calls in the South American nation of Guyana.
Digicel says it is missing out on millions of dollars because its nearly 300,000 subscribers out of a population of some 770,000 cannot make international calls.
Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company has had a monopoly on the calls since it was privatised in 1991.
The company is owned by Salem, Massachusetts-based Atlantic Tele-Network.
The permit expires next year.
The company can renew it for 20 more years, but the government is against it.
Digicel officials stated in court documents filed Friday that the agreement is unlawful and unconstitutional.
Jamaica-based Digicel operates mostly in the Caribbean and Central America.
- AP
