Laqtel to pay up by next week

Sources said that the fees which amount to approximately $6 million is to be paid by Monday. Laqtel’s chairman and co-founder, Dr Joseph Laquis could not be reached for comment yesterday and TATT officials remained tight lipped. Yesterday TATT issued a release that it is to hold a press conference on Monday “on the Ministry of Public Information and the Authority’s decision in relation to the concession issued to Laqtel.”

In November Laqtel was slapped with a $150,000 fine for failing to provide a $4 million performance bond to become the country’s third mobile provider. Apart from the fine, Laqtel was ordered to pay $10,000 a day until it paid the $4 million performance bond to TATT.

While Laqtel was awarded its US$9 million cellular license in July 2005, it is yet to provide mobile service to customers and finally compete against telecom providers TSTT’s bmobile and Digicel.

Laqtel who had been dogged by financial difficulties, had to review its staffing requirements and its head office on Sackville Street was put up for sale at one point.