Digicel hails court victory

Telecom Authority executive director Dr John Prince yesterday disclosed that a final interconnection agreement between TSTT and Digicel may not be far away.

Laqtel founder Dr Joseph Laquis yesterday said his company is unlikely to launch in time for the start of the 2007 Cricket World Cup next month.

Digicel (TT) CEO Kevin White described the court’s decision as “a victory for all consumers in Trinidad and Tobago.” White said call blocking is a serious security concern for all citizens and corporate entities. White said yesterday’s court decision supported Digicel’s view that “there is no place in a modern society for anti-competitive behaviour” and would put an end to this unfair practice. He gave the assurance that Digicel would continue to “strenuously defend the interests of consumers and bring benefits of competition to all.”

TSTT vice-president (legal, regulatory and carrier services) Lisa Agard said this situation creates a dangerous precedent for anyone requiring interconnection to bypass the express provisions of the Telecommunications Act and obtain services at no cost. Agard said it was also grossly disadvantageous for other operators who have signed interconnection agreements with TSTT, particularly in the case of 360 networks which is sending live traffic to TSTT.

Prince said he could not comment about yesterday’s court decision but he has been working on a formula which could see TSTT and Digicel signing a final interconnection agreement.

Digicel and Laqtel were respectively awarded US$16M and US$9M cellular licences by the Telecom Authority in July 2005. An interim interconnection agreement was signed between TSTT and Digicel on March 31, 2006 which allowed Digicel to formally launch its business in this country the following month.

Prince said given the outstanding issues which TSTT and Digicel needed to settle it might take some time for the two companies to sign a final interconnection agreement.

Laquis said Laqtel is currently undergoing a due diligence which should be completed in the next two weeks. He said while things were looking good at this stage he did not want to give an exact date or time period when Laqtel will be launching. Laquis said while the process has been frustrating at times, it was necessary in order to ensure that the public receives top quality service from Laqtel when it finally rolls out its services.