Cable and Wireless was given the franchise to provide telecommunications for St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1967. Although the initial work started in 1967 with the laying of communication cable in soil and the installation of telephone exchange equipment, the system was officially commissioned in 1968. At that time the services offered were limited to Telegraphy and International Telephones. The national telephone service was operated by the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. During this period, telegraphs were transmitted around the Caribbean on an “open air circuit.” Each island from Trinidad and Tobago in the south to Antigua in the north exchanged “traffic” in turns via the five bar code signals. During this period, overseas calls were available from its offices on Granby Street and were transmitted by high frequency radio using three circuits to Carrington, Barbados.

In January 1969 when the first Automatic Dial System was introduced, Cable and Wireless became responsible for the national telephone system of St.Vincent and the Grenadines The system which the government had previously operated was a manual two hundred-line Central Battery Signalling (CBS) system. This served the urban area by utilizing fifty-pair lead sheathed cable and provided limited service to the rural areas via open copper wire conductors. The national telephone service was traded under the name of St.Vincent Telephones.

The Company relocated its offices to Halifax Street where it installed the first “step by step” automatic telephone exchange, so named because the system was designed to respond or “step” to each digit whenever a subscriber number was dialled. This allowed subscribers connected on this exchange to dial each other automatically. International calls had to be made via the International Operator. The total number of subscribers connected on the network was approximately twelve hundred (1,200). Eight hundred (800) of these subscribers were connected on the Kingstown Exchange. Telephone service extended from Rillan Hill, a few miles from Kingstown on the Leeward side of the island, to Arnos Vale just outside Kingstown on the Windward side of the island.

Between the years 1970 and 1982, there was a steady growth of customers connected on the system. The company gradually extended its services by establishing exchanges at Arnos Vale, Mesopotamia, Georgetown, Layou, Chateaubelair, Bequia and Union Island. The system soon reached capacity with about four thousand (4,000) subscribers. An Operator’s Dialling System for manually connecting international calls was also installed. The quality of service offered was better in the Arnos Vale/Kingstown area. This was because communication was via the main switch, which was in close proximity. However, as you went further away from the Kingstown area, the quality of speech progressively deteriorated. It was not uncommon for subscribers to shout into the telephone. This was due to the quality of the equipment.

In 1984, Cable and Wireless established its first Digital Exchange known as System X, to meet the growing demand for services. This was also the first fully digital telephone Switch in the Caribbean. This technologically advanced telephone switch had the ability to provide telecommunication services well into the 21st century. It brought many benefits to both subscribers and Cable and Wireless. For example, it has provided a platform for the establishment of international direct subscriber dialling. The quality of transmission, hence the clarity of speech, is superior to the previous analogue exchanges; expansion does not necessitate large scale civil works such as building, etc.; and it is less manual intensive than its predecessors. At the time of its installation it was rated as one of the world’s most advanced exchange. This was the start of the Company’s system enhancement/expansion programme. When the system was installed in 1984 it was capable of connecting sixteen thousand, three hundred and eighty-four (16,384) subscribers but has since been expanded to be able to connect in excess of thirty thousand (30,000) subscribers.

In 1986, the telephone exchange began providing itemized billing and international direct dialling facilities with improved transmission quality and faster and more reliable call connection. Subscribers in St Vincent and the Grenadines can dial to over two hundred (200) countries in the world.

Over the years, Cable and Wireless has continued to expand telephone service throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Telephone service is now provided to the smaller Grenadine islands of Mustique, Palm Island, Petit St. Vincent, Canouan and Mayreau. In December 1982 the residents north of the Rabacca Dry River (the last populated area of St. Vincent and the Grenadines) were given service. All these enjoy a high quality telephone service comparable, and in some cases even superior, to many larger countries. The present telephone subscriber base stands at approximately twenty-three thousand (23,000).