MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

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Executive Vice President of Cable and Wireless in Islands

The Falkland Islands could become the latest part of the world to have internal access using mobile telephones. Mark Macfee, the executive vice president of Cable and Wireless for the Northern and Atlantic Islands is currently in the Falklands for a short visit. Based in the Cayman Islands he said yesterday that the company's mobile phone expert in the Caymans will visit here in late June or July to see how feasible it would be to set up a mobile phone network. He said that a past figure quoted for this project was around £3.5 million. This is his first visit to the Islands, with the purpose of discovering what is happening here. He is also looking at the size of the market and how the company is run locally. The Cable and Wireless service to the camp is another area often under scrutiny by members of the public. He explained that it is very difficult to service the camp on an economic basis and met with various officials today to discuss this. Regarding the use of call back systems he said that the company has a fairly average rate of return in the Islands and indicated that if it was any worse it would not be worth operating here. Adding, in some places, such as Bermuda, it is almost a criminal offence to use a call back service.

Future is good for oil

The future looks good for oil in the Falklands according to chair of last week's environmental forum Professor Alisdair McKintyre. He said that their meeting held on Wednesday was different from previously as there were no oil companies present but a lot was discussed including the Government's ?Open door policy' to oil companies Professor McKintyre also praised the illustrated talks planned in the evenings last week, he said this allowed the public to find out more about latest research and ask any questions they had. He added how the future in oil looked for the Falklands.

380 thousand on Rural Development

380 thousand pounds will be spent on Rural Development next year according to General Manager of Falklands Islands Development Corporation, Richard Baker. These figures were given at the Camp Roadshows last week. The breakdown included 63 tho