PRESS RELEASE LONG RUN INCREMENTAL COST (LRIC) INTERCONNECTION RATES DECISION

The Fair Trading Commission has determined that the wholesale interconnection rates between telecommunications providers for Fixed Transit, Fixed Termination, Mobile Transit and Mobile Termination interconnection services, which currently exist in the Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO) 2010, will be replaced by the following rates, which are lower. 

The Commission has determined that these new, reduced wholesale interconnection rates will be implemented using a glide path, whereby 60% of the reduction will be effective May 1, 2015 and the remaining 40% reduction will be applied on April 1, 2016.

This Decision was made after the Commission completed a detailed review of interconnection costs. It required Cable and Wireless (Barbados) Limited, the dominant telecommunications provider, to develop the LRIC model based on costs that an efficient operator would incur in providing interconnection services to other telecommunications providers.

The Commission also agreed on the guidelines and specifications that the company followed in developing the model. The review included input from stakeholders, including telecommunications providers.

The provision of interconnection services based on the costs of an efficient operator is widely recognised as an essential requirement for the creation of a competitive telecommunications market, as operators must terminate calls on each other’s network and similarly, receive calls originating on another operator’s network.

The Long Run Incremental Cost (LRIC) Interconnection Rates Decision. [pdf 667K]

Peggy Griffith

Chief Executive Officer

Fair Trading Commission

Tel: 424-0260

April 1, 2015