The law says that Cable & Wireless no longer has a monopoly on fixed-line phone services in Panama, but thanks in large part to the presence of several members of President Moscoso's cabinet on the Cable & Wireless Panama board of directors and a Public Services Regulating Board (Ente Regulador) that prefers to keep this country's utility bills among the highest in the world, that promise has been broken. BellSouth, Telecarrier and other would-be fixed phone competitors are battling C&W and the Moscoso regime in court, and meanwhile BellSouth is stepping up their competition with C&W for cell phone customers. Right after the Cable & Wireless monopoly on international calling ended along with 2002, BellSouth began offering calls to the United States for 5¢ per minute above the local calling rate, plus the $1 per call national tax on international telephony. C&W responded with a 4¢ rate. Then BellSouth put cell phone card vendors out on the streets of Panama City's banking district, something that C&W has been doing for many months. Photo by Eric Jackson