monopoly over its telecommunications market within two years, Prime Minister Owen Arthur announced, becoming the latest Caribbean island to loosen the British firm's hold on the region.

The government will begin granting cellular licences to other companies in December, Arthur said. Starting in April, it will open the local telephone market to competition, and liberalise the long-distance market in 2002, he said.

Cable & Wireless officials could not be reached for comment yesterday. The company has a contract for exclusive service in Barbados through 2011.

"This prevailing monopoly structure is incapable of adequately satisfying the demand for increased delivery of telecommunications services,'' Arthur said.

"It inhibits the economic development of our country and is inconsistent with the worldwide trend of liberalisation in telecommunications.'' A measure allowing Barbados' open market will be introduced in parliament shortly, Arthur said. The government also will present legislation to regulate rates to "protect consumers from unfair pricing practices,'' Arthur said.

Jamaica started the trend last year with its breakthrough agreement with Cable and Wireless to end its monopoly within three years. Last week, five eastern Caribbean islands said they would break open their markets by mid-November, despite Cable & Wireless' pleas for a gradual phaseout.

Caribbean governments have complained about high rates, prompting the company to lower long distance rates in October. Calls from the islands to the United States that used to cost between $1.85 and 2.77 now range from 75 cents to $2 per minute on weekdays.

Still, island leaders say the monopoly contracts, usually for terms of 20 years or more, keep them on the sidelines of the rapidly expanding and increasingly global telecommunications sector.

Leaders from Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia have reached an agreement to open their markets to competition by November 15, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States announced last week.

Cable and Wireless also serves Antigua and Barbuda and the British territories of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Cable & Wireless also serves Bermuda, where deregulation of telecommunications began in the mid-1990s.