Cable & Wireless are still evil
June 25, 2006Cable and Wutless as they are known i the Caribbean are up to their old idiotic fascist tricks. They’ve also shown to the world yet again that they as a company do not understand the internet.
C&W the English telecoms company is the incumbent phone company in Panama and most of the English speaking Caribbean. They have used more dirty tricks than I have ever seen any one company do in the business.
Last week they announced that they were suing their 2 top competitors (Dealante) Clarocom and Telecarrier on the Panamanian market for “stealing” their services. They are suing for USD3.6m and 11m dollars respectively in an attempt to shut them down.
I noted that CW’s press release specifies this amount in Balboas, the imaginary proxy currency (It’ is really dollars) that Panama officially uses. That alone should let you know whats going on as the rule of thumb in Panama is anything priced in Balboas and not dollars is someone trying to con you.
As far as I can make out the reason that they are using is that Telecarrier and Clarocom have Panamanian call termination and pay CW for those services. Now calls reaching them via VOIP (Voice over IP) is somehow stealing CW’s business. I have several friends high up in CW Panama and will try to get the real dirt as I’m afraid I don’t understand the reasoning well from their press release.
CW pulled a similar trick in Jamaica back in 1998 when an old acquaintance of mine was wrongfully arrested based on CW accusations. He ended up something of a folk hero and CW was hit badly by the bad press.
I’ve written about CW Panama in the past and I’m sorry to say it is still an evil company after liberalization. They’ve used every trick in the book to delay their licensed competitors to enter the market.
This is an example that just because a company is private it doesn’t mean that it is pro free market. Most of these idiotic monopolistic companies are even more anti-globalistic than the World Social Forum crowd, maybe CW should sponsor them for next years conference.
