Digicel fights OUR right to lower MTR

摘要

Digicel Jamaica, the largest of the island's two cellular providers by subscribers, has filed a law suit against watchdog the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), challenging the regulator's right to alter interconnection rates. Digicel claims that due process was not followed when the OUR announced that it was lowering mobile termination rates (MTRs), saying that it was not consulted before the OUR acted. The OUR set a new flat MTR at JMD5 per minute to come into effect from July 15. The new rate was set as an interim measure to counteract the negative impact on competition caused by the merger of Claro Jamaica with Digicel and to 'prevent the two remaining mobile operators from leveraging their dominance in terminating calls on their respective networks.'