Cable & Wireless (Caribbean)

Cable & Wireless (West Indies) Ltd. is a leading wholly owned telecommunications subsidiary of the British-based parent company Cable & Wireless plc. This regional subsidiary covers 15 former British colonies of the Caribbean region and is made up of several fairly autonomous Cable & Wireless telecommunications business units.

Many of these Cable & Wireless units operate as the native incumbent telecommunications service providers in the island they reside and offer an array of services.

Services

*International/Domestic Voice telephone services;
*Data/IP services such as ADSL, Frame, or ISDN via the brand name Caribsurf;
*Mobile/Wireless serices including Blackberry;
*other services included satellite based communications, and television services for select countries.

Historical and current

The history of Cable and Wireless' network build-out in the Caribbean region dates back to the 1880's. In recent times the West Indies unit has been considered 'key' in global revenue turnover. 'Cable & Wireless (West Indies) Ltd. is currently the most profitable market outside of the United Kingdom for the parent company Cable and Wireless Plc. The overall primary markets of C&W are: The United Kingdom, the Caribbean, Panama, Macau and Monaco.

C&W Regional profits

In 2005 according to the 2005 C&W annual report:

*United Kingdom turnover: £1,602 million
*Caribbean turnover: £550 million
*Panama turnover: £257 million
*Macau turnover: £117 million
*Monaco Telecom turnover: £100 million
*Rest of the World turnover: £167 million
*Figures are from the financial report released to its shareholders the current listed financial breakdown for CWPLC is as formentioned by regional business segment.

Internet Service in Jamaica

*GPRS - rates for this service changed from $400 JMD/month to $1400 JMD/month on plan A. Plan B consist of $35 JMD/mbytes transferred both at a speed of 33k.
*ADSL - rates for this service is $2100 JMD/month at speeds of 512k.

Currently it seems C&W are getting desperate to keep their company alive due to ludicrous rates for both their internet and voice call services. Currently comparing these prices to the services the customers in Jamaica are getting, many are switching to other companies such as Flow for higher speed for less price than that is currently offered from C&W.

Total CWPLC turnover ~ £3,023 million (Source: [http://www.investis.com/reports/cw_ar_2005_en/pdf/cw_ar_2005_en.pdf] )

Partnerships

ezetop - On August 3rd 2007, Cable & Wireless Jamaica, bmobile signed an agreement with ezetop [http://www.ezetop.com] to provide mobile credit to the Diaspora across the world. Top-Up will be available in retail stores in the US, the UK and online at their website.

Company business units in the Caribbean

*Cable & Wireless plc (CWPLC).
**Cable & Wireless (Cayman Islands) Ltd. - [http://www.candw.ky/ Official website]
**Cable & Wireless Jamaica - [http://home.cwjamaica.com/ Official website] (82% owned)
**Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd - [http://www.tstt.co.tt/ Official website] (49% Owned)
**Cable & Wireless (West Indies) Ltd. (CWWI)
***Anguilla - [http://www.anguillanet.com/ Official website]
***Antigua and Barbuda - [http://www.cwantigua.com/ Official website]
***British Virgin Islands - [http://www.candw.vg/ Official website]
***Montserrat - Website n/a
***Saint Lucia - [http://www.candw.lc/ Official website]
***Turks and Caicos - [http://www.cw.tc/ Official website]

REBRANDED UNITS OF (CWWI)

*Cable & Wireless (Barbados) Ltd. - [http://www.candw.com.bb/ Official website] (81% owned)
*Cable & Wireless Dominica - [http://www.cwdom.dm/ Official website] (80% owned)
*Cable & Wireless Grenada Ltd. - [http://www.candw.gd/ Official website] (70% Owned)
*Cable & Wireless St. Kitts and Nevis Ltd. - [http://www.candw.kn/ Official website] (65% owned)
*Cable & Wireless Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - [http://www.candw.vc/ Official website]

See also: bmobile

External links

* [http://www.cwwionline.com/ Cable & Wireless - Caribbean Homepage]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/14/cncandw114.xml Cable & Wireless accelerates demerger plan] - Telegraph.co.uk (September 14, 2008)