In making the announcement today, the company, which had earlier advised technology Minster Philip Paulwell of its intention, said that several factors had led to this development.

The telegraph service has been rendered almost redundant by the phenomenal growth of other communication technologies and message delivery mediums within Jamaica —landline telephones (approximately 450,000); mobile telephones (close to 1.4-million); fax machines, e-mail and courier services.

All of these, together with improvements in the delivery of mail by the postal service have resulted in a significant fall-off in the use of the service. In addition, the manufacturers of the equipment currently used by Cable & Wireless to deliver the service have discontinued its production making repair and maintenance extremely difficult and expensive where possible.

Further, the service has been operating at a loss for several years, and given the present cost of sending telegrams and the low volumes involved, any price increase intended to offset the losses would be highly prohibitive.

Commenting on the development, Head of Corporate Communications for Cable & Wireless Jamaica, Errol Miller said: “The telegram service which has been with us for many years was formerly an efficient, reliable and speedy form of communication. It has served the people of Jamaica well, but unfortunately it has, like so many other things, been overtaken by progress.”