TRC rules change
The territory’s telecommunications regulator is inviting members of the public to comment on changes the agency would like to make to the licences of three Virgin Islands mobile phone providers. The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission ruled last year that due to fears of unfair competition it should regulate the “national call interconnection market,” in which LIME, CCT Global Communications and Digicel (BVI) charge each other “termination rates” to exchange traffic on their networks. The termination rates, which are scheduled to be in effect from Nov. 1 last year until Oct. 31, 2013, will be set at five cents to connect calls within mobile networks and one cent per minute to connect calls to and from LIME’s fixed-line network to mobile networks. Previously, the fixed-line termination rate was set at three cents per minute. To impose the rates on the phone companies, the TRC has to amend the licences, according to a notice the agency Gazetted last Thursday. Members of the public have until May 21 to provide their comments to the regulator.
Banking codes
An international bank regulator has approved the implementation of new codes for Virgin Islands banks to use while transferring money internationally, a step that will standardise and simplify the process, officials said. International Bank Account Numbers unique to the VI could make it easier for the territory’s banking industry to grow, Premier Dr. Orlando Smith said, according to Government Information Services. The codes were approved by SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions, according to GIS.