Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions min­is­ters from the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of East­ern Caribbean States (OECS) will meet in Cas­tries, St Lu­cia, to­day to dis­cuss the planned merg­er of British telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions com­pa­ny, Ca­ble and Wire­less (CWC) and Colum­bus Com­mu­ni­ca­tions In­ter­na­tion­al.Mem­bers of the East­ern Caribbean Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Au­thor­i­ty (Ectel) will meet to dis­cuss the pro­posed merg­er which is a source of grave con­cern to some in the re­gion.

To­day's meet­ing is tak­ing place just a few days ahead of one called by the Caribbean Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Union (CTU) to con­sid­er the im­pli­ca­tions of the deal. This meet­ing will be held in Port-of-Spain next Wednes­day and Thurs­day.

The pro­posed US$3 bil­lion ac­qui­si­tion by CWC of Colum­bus, a pri­vate­ly-owned fi­bre ser­vices provider in the Caribbean, Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and An­dean re­gion, could make CWC the re­gion's largest whole­sale and re­tail broad­band ser­vice provider. The ac­qui­si­tion re­quires reg­u­la­to­ry ap­proval in T&T, Ja­maica and Bar­ba­dos.