The VOIP offering is the latest in an aggressive roll out of new products and services by Cable and Wireless, seeking to clawback business and regain dominance in a telecommunications market where it was once a monopoly.

With its VOIP service, Cable and Wireless is venturing into an emerging segment of the telecommunications market where a number of relatively small start-ups are already in operation, whose spokesmen say they are prepared for the competition from the company that is dominant in fixed-line telephony.

"We welcome the addition of Netspeak to the VoIP market in Jamaica... we are confident that our offering is far more customer oriented and offers far superior value to ADSL customers," Marguerite Cremin, marketing director of Caribbean Net Talk, one of the companies that offers customers the service that allow them to link telephones to their computers and make international calls via the Internet.

"Our referral programme and the absence of an activation fee are clear advantages over their (Cable & Wirless' proposition," Cremin said.

Under the C&W programme that was unveiled on Monday, the cost of the unlimited is separate from the US$29.95 ($1,910) per month for the ADSL service, which is necessary for VOIP.  For new ADSL residential customers there is a one-time setup cost of US$39.99 ($2,550).

Netspeak allows customers to make unlimited calls to the US, Canada and the UK.  Subscribers will also have the option of adding unlimited calls to 31 other countries and bundled minutes to C&W Caribbean islands, India and Germany, for an additional cost.

Since he became president of Cable and Wireless less than six months, the company's CEO Rodney Davies had brought a new verve to the firm that had lagged behind its major competitor, Digicel, in the mobile telephone market, since competition was allowed four years ago.

Davies has not only been cutting costs for services but has found advertising campaigns that appear to have resonated with the Jamaican public, unlike the staid offerings of the past.

Since October, broadband service subscribers, the backbone of the VOIP offering, has increased from just under 4,000 to approximately 23,500.  C&W hopes to have 50,000 by the end of its fiscal year ending March 30, 2006.

According Rodney Davis, VOIP phone calls can be made on the lowest high-speed bandwidth currently being provided by Cable and Wireless - 128 kbps - but he said that the ideal connection speeds are 256 kbps and upward.

"It can work at 128 kbps, but 512 kbps is the recommended speed for optimal service," Davis told the media at the Knutsford Court Hotel on Monday.  "Currently, our lowest service to customers (128 kbps) has 128 going in and 64 going out... we plan on increasing that to 96 to improve quality for customers using the lowest band."

512kbps service currently costs US$49.95 ($3,190) per month.  His competitors in this marketplace claim not be over peturbed by C&W's foray there.

Caribbean Net Talk, which was formed in July of this year, offers VOIP services for the same flat monthly rate of US$24.95 for unlimited calls to the US, Canada and the UK.

However, the company does not charge an activation fee and provides free installation - a fact highlighted by Cremin.  Alternatively, Netstream Global charges an activation fee of US$40 ($2,520) and a flat rate of US$25 ($1,580) monthly for unlimited calling to the US, Canada and UK.

Daighn Jones, Netstream Global IT manager, says his company has been providing this service for the last nine months.  He noted , however, that his company "does not require customers to sign twelve-month contracts, charge early contract termination fees, or restricts service to residential customers."

ISP provider Kasnet's chief executive, Christopher Elliot, believes C&W "moved to this market because there is a fallout in international usage, that is, more persons are buying devices and VOIP services overseas" .

Kasnet has been offering ADSL service islandwide since April this year.  Elliot believes that the introduction of value added services and new providers will lead to additional customers taking up his services.

"The takeup of service is better than we expected, and we anticpate even better take-up with all these value aded service coming on stream," Elliot said.

Davis pointed out that C&W would soon offer 256kbps, based on market surveys indicated was in demand as well as, providing a useful in between for calls made over the internet.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20051029T220000-0500_91449_OBS_C_W_HEATS_UP_COMPETITION_IN_VOIP_MARKET.asp