The Compañia Dominicana de Telefonos (CODETEL) recently published a paid advertisement in which it accuses an unnamed organization (widely thought to be the Dominican Institute of Consumer Orientation, together with the Committee for the Defense of Telephone Service Users) of committing “illicit” and illegal acts of sabotage against Codetel’s installations in Santo Domingo and creating adverse publicity. The organizations in question have denied the accusations of sabotage, and that their forthcoming “National Forum against abuses of Telephone Companies” is “illicit” or illegal. They claim that they are simply defending the rights of telephone users, claiming that Codetel has formed a “monopoly” in the D.R., and can therefore exercise arbitrary control over the cost of the telephone service. Codetel, in the wake of the recent competition from other telephone companies in the field of long distance calls, recently raised the price of domestic calls from public telephones and again limited the total number of free minutes from private instruments, claiming that it can no longer subsidize these services with long distance calls.
19-25 April 1996