Major providers such as AT&T, MCI and British Telecommunications who had strongly objected to paying a cess, effective June 1, had their calls blocked by local telecoms companies.

Calls into Jamaica from the United States dwindled to a trickle Wednesday as the major carriers refused to pay the cess on calls terminating in Jamaica.

The new arrangement, which came into force on midnight Tuesday, calls for foreign carriers to pay three US cents to the government for every call they terminate on Jamaica's fixed-line networks and two US cents for those that go to mobile phones.

The disruption occurred because overseas carriers' resisted the local carriers requests for rate changes under their bilateral contracts for the exchange of traffic.

However, Paulwell said yesterday that the overseas companies had changed their positions and were agreeing to pay the levy.

The minister said, too, that new carriers were already expressing an interest in doing business with Jamaica since the impasse and would likely "fill any breach" arising.

At a post-sectoral debate press briefing at his ministry in Kingston yesterday, Paulwell, supported by representatives of local telecommunications companies Cable and Wireless Caribbean, Digicel and MiPhone, said that services were expected to return to normal by tomorrow.

"We are all standing firm on this one... pressure is building and the companies are realising that there are significant commercial opportunities based on the projected rapid expansion in Jamaica's telecoms sector penetration," said Paulwell.

Yesterday, money transfer firm Western Union reported little signs of any disruptions in overseas calls, while Sandals Resorts International's director of corporate affairs Leo Lambert said that the "situation had not changed significantly between Wednesday and Thursday.

"I wouldn't say it has affected business in a profound way, but our office in Miami still cannot get through to us in Jamaica," said Lambert.

He noted that the local Sandals office had to be calling Miami for information, as calls were not coming through.  The bulk of the resort's guests are booked through Miami.

The special tax being imposed on calls from overseas is provided for under the Telecommunications Act to fund Jamaica's universal access programme for various telecommunications services.  Domestic consumers currently carry the full cost of existing universal service obligations which exceeds J$1 billion, which is the sum the government wants to garner from the tax over the next three years.

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