Domestic Politics And The Politics Of Satellite Telecommunications

In September of 1988, the government of
Jamaica heralded its official entry into the
information industry with the establishment of the
US$2 million Jamaica Digiport International
facility. The significance of this announcement was
only surpassed by the state s decision to close the
domestic sector to competition simultaneously as the
global satellite regime and the global market
embarked on its own course of liberalization of the
sector.
This study identifies two powerful sectoral
characteristics which facilitated this apparent
contradiction. The first was compelling domestic
interests in the sector that led to its closing. The
second characteristics was the global monopoly
Intelsat system. Intelsat''s structure and the role
played by signatories within the system therefore
functioned to protect the status quo of the single
global system and to bar the entry of other firms
whose activities did not enhance Intelsat s
investment goals. Intelsat''s leadership served as
gatekeeper - preserving the monopoly status quo
resulting in increased dominance of the local
telecommunications on the domestic politics.