LIME has welcomed the Authority’s much anticipated ruling regarding Digicel’s request for access to LIME’s fibre and copper network.

Like other communication networks, broadband is seen as a key driver of economic activity and growth. The social and economic benefits of broadband are considerable, but so is the commitment and effort required by operators to deliver it. LIME has been investing in the communications structure of the Cayman Islands for the last 50 years and has continued to do so, in just the last two years a massive $30 million was invested in its Superfast Broadband rollout.

Bill McCabe, CEO LIME Cayman Islands said “we are very pleased with the outcome. It is both pro-consumer and pro-investment, essential ingredients for good regulatory decisions. This ruling sends a strong message to any business thinking about investing in the Cayman Islands that those investments will not be subject to inappropriate regulatory intervention whilst ensuring that consumers will benefit from an attractive environment for solid infrastructure investment. If LIME had been forced to provide competitors with access to the networks we have invested so heavily in, it would have stifled future incentives for both infrastructure-based competition and technical innovation.”

One of the dangers of forcing access to established infrastructure is that of “cherry picking” where new service providers focus only on profitable exchanges which means highly populated areas with affluent customers would benefit and the less populated outer districts or the Sister Islands would have been left behind or ignored.

Bill continued “serious investment in superfast broadband is clearly understood to deliver significant long term social and economic benefits for the Cayman Islands. This has been wisely recognized by the Authority in its decision. All businesses, services and residents must be able to benefit from high speed, next generation broadband to ensure the Cayman Islands competitiveness in the global economy, which is why LIME has delivered Superfast Broadband to the entire country.”