Digicel Trinidad & Tobago is calling for regulators in the twin-island republic to insist that Cable & Wireless shows binding agreements to sell its stake in Telecommunications Services of Trinidad & Tobago (TSTT) before giving approval for the merger of LIME and Flow in that country.
The regulator, the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) has so far declined to approve the merger of LIME (a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless) and Flow, saying it will lessen competition in that country's telecoms sector. Cable & Wireless has a 49 per cent stake in telecoms provider, TSTT.
TATT said Cable & Wireless must divest that stake and has given it one year to do so.
Digicel is pressing the regulator, however, to ensure that there is more than a casual commitment, but instead solid proof from Cable & Wireless that its stake in TSTT is being divested before granting approval for the merger.
Cable & Wireless Communications, the parent company of LIME, and Columbus Communications, the parent company of Flow, agreed late last year to a US$3 billion merger of the two entities in the Caribbean.
The merger will however go ahead only after approval is granted by regulators in Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and Antigua-Barbuda.
So far only Jamaica and Antigua-Barbuda have granted approval.
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