mobile phone subscribers (Trinidad Guardian 2004), whereas there were 2,000,000 subscribers in Jamaica (Digicel, personal communication). The latter figure reflected an average of three phones per household. Given the much higher income levels of Trinidadians and their sense of themselves as a first world country (Miller and Slater 2000:118), these numbers were quite surprising. Many factors explain Jamaicans' preference for mobile phones over the internet and, the differences with Trinidad. One was the response of each government to the liberalisation of the telecoms sector prompted by the World Bank and others. The Trinidadian government encouraged the development of the internet and computers, with interest free loans to public sector workers that, combined with much higher income levels, resulted in more affordable computers. By contrast it was slow to grant licences to the mobile phone sector. The Jamaican government showed less appreciation of the potential of the internet but was quick to grant licences for the mobile phone industry. The role of companies has been as important as that of the state. As it has for much of the Caribbean (Maurer 2001), Cable and Wireless dominated the telecommunications industry in Jamaica over the past 100 years. As the incumbent corporation Cable and Wireless have attempted, as would most companies, to defend their business position. In some cases this may have led to the incumbent being regarded as a conservative force impeding the development of the telecommunications industry (Miller and Slater 2000: 117-143, Stirton and Lodge 2002). This proved decisive when, after