Shawn Cumberbatch
Some of the damage caused by Hurricane Elsa at the junction of Princess Royal Avenue and Collymore Rock, St Michael. (FILE) Social Share
Barbados’ major utility companies whose ability to provide service was hampered by Hurricane Elsa will be exempt from paying customers compensation, says the Fair Trading Commission (FTC).
However, the FTC is warning the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BL&P), Barbados Water Authority (BWA) and Cable & Wireless (Barbados) Limited (C&W) that they “are not allowed free reign and are still expected to restore service within the shortest possible time frame”.
The regulator has decided that the named utility companies, which have some Barbadians without service seven days after the storm damaged or destroyed hundreds of properties, qualify for a standards of service exemption in light of the force majeure circumstance – unforeseeable circumstances preventing fulfilment of a contract.
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Barbadians could end up paying more for their landline service from Cable & Wireless (Barbados) Limited (C&W) in the future.
But the telecommunications company, which trades as Flow, will not be able to hike the price beyond three per cent a year, as determined by the Fair Trading Commission (FTC).
The utility regulator announced this yesterday. It explained that even though the traditional stand-alone fixed line service was now less in use and while C&W faced competition from Digicel, there were “vulnerable customers” who had to be considered.
This was after the FTC reported that C&W argued against retaining the price cap regime that was first implemented in 2005. The price cap only applies to C&W’s landline offering as the FTC does not regulate mobile phone services.