Mr. Paulwell conceded that the "economic spin-offs" from full liberalisation would be enormous. He was making his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

He said that between now and March 1, 2003, the original date set for the finalisation of the process, the Government would continue strengthening its legislative and administrative framework, to maximise its full benefits.

During the debate on the controversial Telecommunications Act, 2000 the Minister had raised hopes that subsequent negotiations with CWJ could shorten the waiting period for full liberalisation from 3 years. During Phase One of the agreement, which preceded the passage of the Act, two cellular licences were granted, to Digicel and Centennial, who have been competing with CWJ, but with CWJ retaining its ascendancy as the original provider of these and other telecommunications services.

"The Government and Cable and Wireless have not been able to come to an agreement for shortening the period to full liberalisation of the telecommunications sector and so the date remains March 1, 2003," Mr. Paulwell said.

He said that while in the past the focus had been on issues to do with voice telephony, the more significant issue for future would be the delivery of data service sand bandwidth capacity.

Mr. Paulwell said too, that the Government had taken note of concerns expressed about the proliferation of cellular sites and that "a co-location agreement between the three cellular companies" had been reached.

"We will have to work out the details and implement as soon as possible," he told the House.

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