UK-based telecoms group Cable & Wireless (C&W) has dismissed as "without foundation" a claim for damages from Digicel, Denis O'Brien's Caribbean mobile group. The claim is believed to amount to some £300 million (€445 million).
"We believe the claim is without foundation and it will be vigorously defended," the company said in a statement yesterday, adding that it believed the legal action was a "deliberate spoiling tactic".
C&W is the dominant telecoms operator in 10 out of 14 Caribbean markets, and operates in countries such as Panama, Macau, Monaco and the Channel Islands as well as in Britain, the United States and across Europe.
Digicel, which in a statement accused C&W of hampering competition in the Caribbean, said it had issued a claim in the English High Court seeking several hundreds of millions of pounds in damages. Digicel said it expected the claim to come to court in 2008.
The company, which first set up operations in 2001 and now has 4.7 million customers in 22 markets, says it was forced to delay operations in markets such as St Lucia, Granada, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago by up to six months - partly because of delays in securing interconnect deals with C&W.
"The consistent prevarication and obstruction that Cable & Wireless has undertaken providing interconnection in . . . seven territories is something that I have never witnessed before," said Julian Horn-Smith, the former deputy chief executive of Vodafone, who sits on Digicel's board.
Accounts for Digicel, released to bondholders last week, show that Denis O'Brien spent $908 million (€659 million) in cash expanding his Caribbean mobile empire in the year to the end of March.
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