So, while that brings some kind of end to the current round of BTL litigation, we also asked him about ongoing case over the other telecoms provider, Speednet.
As we've shown you, Smart took the Public Utlities Commission all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice, the highest court in the land. They continue to dispute the 792 thousand dollar-fee that the PUC says that they should pay for a number of frequencies which they used to conduct their business such as phone calls, text messaging, and data.
The case is now awaiting a judgment from the CCJ since Courtenay, who represented Speednet, and Fred Lumor, who represented the PUC, have already argued the case to completion. But, we've since learned a few interesting facts. Firstly, Speednet has not paid these licensing fees for the past 5 years, and so they owe the utilities regulator a total of 3.96 million dollars. Secondly, BTL, which has a larger customer base and a bigger communications infrastructure, has reportedly also not been paying these fees. So they could well owe a few million more than Speednet, since the PUC hasn't collected from them in that 5 year period due to this challenge brought by Speednet. Courtenay explained it in detail to us today:
Sen. Eamon Courtney, SC - Attorney for Speednet
"There is a license fee to be paid for mobile cellular calls, both operators are paying that. There is another fee which is a fee for a point to point link that is how you move calls in bulk from let’s say Dangriga to Toledo or Dangriga to Belize City, it's moved in bulk; it's called a point to point link and that is what this case was about. My clients Speednet say that the fee that they should pay for the 14 links that they were attempting to get is 1400 dollars; the PUC say no it is 792,500 a huge difference. My client paid the first year under protest without prejudice to going to court and challenge it and since then they have not paid so all of this amount has accrued. What came out of the CCJ was the admission from the PUC that Belize Telemedia has not paid a single dollar for the point to point links. Now if Speednet has to 792,500 per year, Telemedia has to pay many many more because it's a much bigger company, carries much more calls so it's amount accrued for Telemedia and we were told at the court that they have not paid a dollar towards those license fees."
We await the decision of the CCJ to see how this story ends.
Daniel Ortiz
"So that's several probably tens of millions of dollars that the Telemedia company has to pay..."
Sen. Eamon Courtney, SC - Attorney for Speednet
"If we lose this case... If Speednet loses this case alright then they have to pay just like Speednet would have to pay since 2012 coming forward that have not been paid. The converse is true, if Speednet wins then the PUC cannot collect that amount from Telemedia and it will have to refund Speednet some of that money."
We await the decision of the CCJ to see how this story ends.
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