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January 10, 2004
Cable & Wireless, AT&T know it’s all about turf
From the Barbados Advocate:
Web Posted - Sat Jan 10 2004
By David "Joey" Harper
The question as to whether Cable & Wireless, the sole telecommunications provider in Barbados, should switch their billing system to metered rates or not rages on. The bigger picture that has been systematically kept from the view of and scrutiny by the consumer, is the question of fixed rates and to what extent will they be affected by the rate hike that is Cable & Wireless’ ultimate goal.
There is a very real possibility that the rates may leap forward by almost one hundred per cent a month, from the current twenty eight dollars a month domestic rate to fifty-six dollars a month. This could easily be done while the population sniffs behind an in heat rate hearing conveniently called “metered rate hearings”, being convened by a woefully inadequate Fair Trading Commission, peopled by persons of unquestionable intellect, but short in some cases on experience in dealing with multinational giants accustomed to challenging citizens and their representative governments.
The battle now being fought is not completely, if at all, about rates, for they already know the outcome. It is a battle for turf, fought daily by these economic behemoths. This battle is not about the smaller players in the game, it is about two multinational giants, AT&T and Cable & Wireless. These companies will fight as vigorously for turf, it is not about ego, but about positioning internationally.
I was introduced to the real world of territorial business warfare when introduced into the lottery business, at a conference in Chile. I was privileged to be seated beside one of the leaders in the industry; she was the head of a major lottery destination and knowledgeable in the ways of the marketplace.
“Why”, I asked her, “were service providers so interested in the Barbados market, which yielded by lottery standards a puny seventy three million Barbados dollars, approximately thirty-six million United States dollars, the weekly takings of some of the major lottery markets?”
Her response was simple, “Gtech,” she said, “could not afford to allow any competitive service provider to enter, without a major challenge any market that they had pioneered, the cost of maintaining a marginal market like Barbados was way beyond that of any state lottery, but the internationalisation of the brand name Gtech was more important than profits; it gave them the ability to quote on more lucrative markets and win, using the fact that their base was worldwide, efficient in small infrastructurally difficult or in the case of Barbados, a hub that would lead to Caribbeanisation of their lottery base.”
This condensed conversation led me to realise the threat that small countries such as ours face, especially in a world of journalists whose investigative reporting skills were greatly hampered by the need to maintain competitive in the corporate controlled advertising market, not only in cost, but in compliance to invisible rules set down by national and multinational corporations, which are depended on for support by social agencies, suppliers of advertising and governments.
The above constitutes the re-colonisation of the Caribbean by multinational corporations. This is most interesting and is progressing with an efficiency that should be the model for any political science student to base a doctoral thesis.
The effects of this new development which will create intense hardships for the colonised, purely because of the two hundred and fifty thousand souls who people our country, very few are business literate beyond the ABCs of international intrigue, whether honest or dishonest as Enron et al will demonstrate. The failure of these soulless entities can spell economic disaster to small states dependent on their services, as job providers and economic motivators of our fragile economies.
The de-literisation of the masses of young people is also a phenomenon, the Internet has the capacity to educate, but is it possible that this is not exactly what the world of international commerce wants, and therefore if the cost to access the net can be made prohibitive to the masses, would this not create the type of dependency on the privileged who can afford to maintain the surfboard, well waxed and able to ride the encroaching business tsunami which could make environmental kick-em-jenny appear as a blessing?
I ask these questions because my fear is that our leaders are not moving beyond the borders of their own little empires, fuelled by egos that deceive them into believing that they are players in the bigger world picture.
Deals are being brokered daily on private jets commuting between Tobago and Barbados that will have significant repercussions on sleeping Barbadians. The press is from time to time entertained on these flights, and even though I trust the integrity of our press corps, I know that it is hard to probe those who are acting as your hosts. Sometimes snippets of information are revealed, but prudence and journalistic ethics will not allow even the boldest journalist to reveal, sometimes this can be unfair to a public that depends on the media to investigate, reveal and report.
I am not happy that the rate hearing, apart from the dramatic appeal which it generates, will have any effect on the true motive of the parties competing for and against increased rates. I do not believe that the fledgling FTC is really ready to deal with the massive job of intrigue and Public Relations blitzes, as well as marketing strategies that are being played out on a gullible market.
My ninety-nine dollar cell just rang, and I marvel at the fact that this same unit can be purchased on the Internet for one cent, by the average consumer, and a fifty dollar rebate offered in the form of a card if you purchase two. If this offer extends to any service provider, can you imagine the profit that accrues every time you line up to purchase that dream of a deal?
But who bothers to surf the net to investigate international trends? Not many people, and in the future it may be so costly, that home surfing may suffer and only the few who really need to will visit the Internet cafés, or should we now label them “beaches”?
Government should come off “autopilot” and start educating the masses on the effects that globalisation will have on a sleeping population, casting blame on the recalcitrance of neighbouring territories ceases to be an option. Our government has a responsibility to awaken from its self-imposed political slumber and come to the public, not within the confines of town hall meetings which serve less use than the “regular caller” dominated call-in programmes.
In order to counter the attempt to recolonise small states such as ours, the masses must be armed with easy-to-understand information. History may record that you aided and abetted in committing the crime of allowing smothering bureaucracy to cheat the masses of the chance to set in place positive social structures to strengthen its immune system against the corporate multinational colonialism that seeks to finally destroy the will of our people.
Metered rates! As a matter of fact, it is a turf war and the prize is the credibility of Barbados, settled years ago by Barbadians that were proud to be just that, Barbadians.
