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Carlos Espinal resigns as CEO of TSTT

Trinidad -

TSTT wishes to announce the resignation of Carlos Espinal as its Chief Executive Officer with effect from 31st August, 2006. Mr. Espinal who had given twenty six weeks notice of his intention to leave, in accordance with the terms of his contract, cited personal reasons for his departure.

As an interim measure the Executives of the Company will report to the Chairman until the Board of Directors completes its assessment of several candidates who participated in an international executive search process, which began several months ago for a new Chief Executive Officer. The Board is being assisted in the selection exercise by Egon Zender International, a world renowned Executive search firm. It is expected that the Board will make an announcement on a successor by the end of September 2006.

Mr. Samuel Martin, Chairman of TSTT, had the following comments about this transition. “Carlos Espinal brought a wealth of experience and a passion and commitment to TSTT during his tenure. His positive contribution will be well kept and enhanced by the experienced management team in place in the company.”

The departing CEO had the following comments about his resignation. “I leave TSTT and Trinidad and Tobago with a lot of mixed feelings, sad because of the many great moments and great friends I made both internal and external to the company, but confident that a spirit of success and the methodology to achieve it has been instilled in the company. I want to thank all the employees, the Executive Management Team, the Board and our customers for their support during my stay.

I am confident of the success of the company because the core capabilities are in place and the team is clearly capable of achieving the shared vision adopted by the company. I will miss the many friends and the warrior spirit prevailing in T&T and I urge people to take advantage of the many opportunities in the country.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc. said on Wednesday it had dropped a surcharge for high-speed Internet service after U.S. regulators questioned whether the No. 2 U.S. telephone carrier was following truthful billing practices.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission sent Verizon a letter last week questioning a new fee on digital subscriber line (DSL) services which the company introduced in place of a fee the federal government ended earlier this month.

Verizon's decision follows a similar move last week by BellSouth Corp., which scrapped plans for a surcharge after pressure from regulators.

The phone companies are no longer required to contribute revenue from their high-speed Internet service to the government's Universal Service Fund, which helps fund communications services for lower-income and rural users.

The companies typically passed that cost on to customers.

Instead of cutting customers' bills to reflect the end of monthly contributions of $1.25 or $2.85, depending on connection speeds, Verizon had introduced a new fee of $1.20 or $2.70 to help pay for building its networks.

Consumer protection groups had protested, saying users were paying enough premiums and the companies were essentially trying to raise prices without subscribers noticing.

The FCC had said it was investigating whether Verizon's practices were in line with its "Truth-in-Billing"
 rules.

"We have listened to our customers... and are eliminating this charge in response to their concerns," Verizon's chief marketing officer Bob Ingalls said in a statement on Wednesday.

A small number of customers who have already been billed for the surcharge will receive a credit, the company said.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in a statement on Wednesday that he was happy with the decisions by Verizon and BellSouth.