bahamiangoddess
02-13-08, - 12:48 PM
13th February
Privy Council Rejects BTC’s Appeal
By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR
The Privy Council on Tuesday blocked an attempt by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company [BTC] to maintain its monopoly on certain telephony services.
The UK-based appellate body dismissed BTC’s appeal aimed at having the license of rival company Systems Resource Group (SRG) Ltd, the operator of Indigo Networks, revoked.
Essentially, BTC contends that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) should not have granted SRG the right to use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) which represents a huge chunk of SRG’s business.
What VoIP does, is allow the licensee to bring in a transmission – in data form – over the Internet and convert it to voice.
For example, an Indigo Onephone subscriber could use VoIP to place local and international calls similar to the U.S. Vonage or BTC’s Vibe service, which also uses VoIP.
It was almost six years ago that the PUC issued the license, which had been sought by SRG to provide telecommunications services of every de scri ption within the service area of New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco.
BTC’s attorney Dr Lloyd Barnett argued before the Privy Council in December that his client’s exclusive rights to offer VoIP for voice telephony services should not have expired until 24 months after the sale of BTC shares to private investors – which the government has yet to do.
However, in its ruling handed down yesterday, the Privy Council said the fact still remains that the license was issued and SRG "has invested very substantial amounts of money in the purchase and installation of state-of-the-art equipment to enable it to provide a fully modernized telecommunications system."
The high court further noted: "Revocation of the license in these circumstances which is what a successful application for judicial review would have led to, would have severe implications not only for SRG but also for the reputation and credibility of the regulatory system in the Bahamas as a whole."
It was only after losing its appeal in the Bahamas Court of Appeal, that BTC took its fight to the highest appellate court for the country. If the company had succeeded in its appeal, the case would have reverted to the Supreme Court for a ruling on the merits of the case.
BTC had hoped that the high court would have declared that PUC did not have the authorisation under the Telecommunications Sector Policy to allow Indigo Networks to use VoIP.
Racardo Underwood, chief financial officer of Indigo Networks said, "Obviously this is a big win for Indigo, VoIP technology is central to our operation as well as the entire telecommunications industry.
"Indigo will continue to compete with BTC using the wide range of innovative telecommunications products and services that we offer."
According to SRG’s attorney, Brian Moree, the win will go a long way in opening up the telecommunications sector – in terms of additional products, better services and lower prices.
"I don’t think it’s any question that the public interest of Bahamians is going to be advanced through a more liberalized and competitive telecommunications sector, that is the basic fact underlying the telecommunications sector policy which the government itself has released," he said.
"We are committed to competition. We think competition is good for the Bahamian public, it’s good for our economy and it’s going to produce, we think, a better telecommunications sector with better prices, better services and a wider range of products and with all the benefits competition has brought to other countries around the world when they have liberalized their telecommunications sector."
The Bahama Journal’s calls to BTC executives were not returned up to press time.
Privy Council Rejects BTC’s Appeal
By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR
The Privy Council on Tuesday blocked an attempt by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company [BTC] to maintain its monopoly on certain telephony services.
The UK-based appellate body dismissed BTC’s appeal aimed at having the license of rival company Systems Resource Group (SRG) Ltd, the operator of Indigo Networks, revoked.
Essentially, BTC contends that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) should not have granted SRG the right to use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) which represents a huge chunk of SRG’s business.
What VoIP does, is allow the licensee to bring in a transmission – in data form – over the Internet and convert it to voice.
For example, an Indigo Onephone subscriber could use VoIP to place local and international calls similar to the U.S. Vonage or BTC’s Vibe service, which also uses VoIP.
It was almost six years ago that the PUC issued the license, which had been sought by SRG to provide telecommunications services of every de scri ption within the service area of New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco.
BTC’s attorney Dr Lloyd Barnett argued before the Privy Council in December that his client’s exclusive rights to offer VoIP for voice telephony services should not have expired until 24 months after the sale of BTC shares to private investors – which the government has yet to do.
However, in its ruling handed down yesterday, the Privy Council said the fact still remains that the license was issued and SRG "has invested very substantial amounts of money in the purchase and installation of state-of-the-art equipment to enable it to provide a fully modernized telecommunications system."
The high court further noted: "Revocation of the license in these circumstances which is what a successful application for judicial review would have led to, would have severe implications not only for SRG but also for the reputation and credibility of the regulatory system in the Bahamas as a whole."
It was only after losing its appeal in the Bahamas Court of Appeal, that BTC took its fight to the highest appellate court for the country. If the company had succeeded in its appeal, the case would have reverted to the Supreme Court for a ruling on the merits of the case.
BTC had hoped that the high court would have declared that PUC did not have the authorisation under the Telecommunications Sector Policy to allow Indigo Networks to use VoIP.
Racardo Underwood, chief financial officer of Indigo Networks said, "Obviously this is a big win for Indigo, VoIP technology is central to our operation as well as the entire telecommunications industry.
"Indigo will continue to compete with BTC using the wide range of innovative telecommunications products and services that we offer."
According to SRG’s attorney, Brian Moree, the win will go a long way in opening up the telecommunications sector – in terms of additional products, better services and lower prices.
"I don’t think it’s any question that the public interest of Bahamians is going to be advanced through a more liberalized and competitive telecommunications sector, that is the basic fact underlying the telecommunications sector policy which the government itself has released," he said.
"We are committed to competition. We think competition is good for the Bahamian public, it’s good for our economy and it’s going to produce, we think, a better telecommunications sector with better prices, better services and a wider range of products and with all the benefits competition has brought to other countries around the world when they have liberalized their telecommunications sector."
The Bahama Journal’s calls to BTC executives were not returned up to press time.