PRESS RELEASE: Cable & Wireless Communications, LIME’s parent company, today announces it has successfully defended itself in the UK High Court against claims it unlawfully delayed Digicel’s entry into the Caribbean telecoms market between 2002 and 2006.
Mr Justice Morgan handed down a judgement in the High Court dismissing all the claims brought by Digicel, except for in the Turks & Caicos where he found a minor breach of contract but ruled it caused Digicel no delay and thus no loss. Cable & Wireless Communications will now take action against Digicel to seek the reimbursement of its costs of defending the matter.
Tony Rice, Cable & Wireless Communications CEO commented: “This is a resounding victory for Cable & Wireless Communications. This case has been a pointless waste of time and money. It was brought by Digicel on the eve of our AGM in July 2007 amid a fanfare of publicity and a statement that its claim was for several hundreds of millions of pounds. We maintained throughout that the case was baseless, and the UK High Court has now vindicated this. I am delighted that we have won and are now free from this unnecessary distraction”
David Shaw, the CEO of LIME, commented:“The UK High Court has seen through Digicel’s accusations as we always said they would. At LIME, our approach to business is clear. We’re focused on winning for our customers which means operating with integrity and delivering solutions that customers expect and deserve. We can now put aside unnecessary distractions and get down to the challenge of growing our business in the face of the economic challenges facing Caribbean markets. This victory certainly gives us some momentum to get on with the task at hand.”
Background on the case
The case involved claims that the Cable & Wireless Communications Group had breached the telecoms statutes in six Caribbean territories (Barbados, Cayman, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada and the Turk & Caicos Islands) which Digicel was entering as a competitor to Cable & Wireless (now LIME) between 2002-06. Similar allegations were also made against TSTT, the Trinidad & Tobago-based telecom operator, in which Cable & Wireless Communications holds a minority stake.
Digicel also alleged senior management of Cable & Wireless plc, the then parent company of Cable & Wireless Communications Group, had been involved in a ‘conspiracy’ to delay its entry into these markets.
The judgement dismissed all of the claims in the seven territories and the overarching conspiracy claim with the minor exception that the Judge found a breach of a short letter agreement with Digicel in the Turks & Caicos Islands, but which he ruled caused Digicel no delay and thus no loss.
The case was heard over 77 sitting days in the High Court in London, UK, and heard evidence from 43 witnesses.
The ruling follows LIME’s other recent court victories over Digicel including:
Its successful defence, with the Jamaica Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), of Digicel’s appeal to the UK Privy Council on interconnection and call termination rates (January, 2010)
An injunction against Digicel ordering it to restore circuits it blocked in a dispute over international calls (February, 2010)
The dismissal of Digicel’s contempt of court claims brought against officers of LIME in connection in the same international calls dispute (June, 2009)
And who you think that going to pay for all those “corporate wars”? Us. So trust me, all the deals, specials, double bubble, unlimited talk, unlimited text etc, that going to change. National Telecommunication Regulatory Commission people, i hope you all sit up and take notice. Before those British and Irish people make us their pawns in their little chess games.
Had it not been for digi and the other companies that came on the scene
we would still be paying $10.00 and more for overseas calls. Is every two (2) yrs
I was able to call my mom in the states. Now I can call her almost every day
Thanks to digi & others.
Lime, u are much better now but u still owe it to us.
Eh? Cable & Wireless … For the past years a call to Europe was close to
$10.00 a minute. Check those records. They are there . Because of the other competitors, they
started to decrease gradually. They then started to give a little piece (help) . Thats all our money …
well well the eyes have it who was digicel fooling with there crap from the first day i hear digicel talked about that case i said to my friends that they will loose and look it came true,c&w has done a lot for the Caribbean and still doing so now the year round Christmas will have some work to do, so when c&w takes them to court there will be no more free calls and free text wow look story lime please don’t do that for the sake of the poor people of my country plus they are suppose to have and sponsor the wcmf justice was served
yeahh..buh digi still way better than them…and mostly ppl now have digi……..
yeah sasha girl firend ur relative msut be working in cable and wireless. yes it has done good thing in the caribbean. none i have benefitted from!haha. howver digicel has enabled me to call my friend and family both here and abroad at quite a reasonable price. and a call on a cables land line used to be a minimum of $5 a min. now i can call the uk&us for $1. thank god 4 digicel. i have a cables phone to recieve calls only! too expensive 2 call out! but 4 $10 ec (4 us) i can call all my friends weekly with digi for FREE. FREE i tell yah. thank god 4 digicel(so far). if tommorow they s*** than i bray.