The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled in favour of attempts to strike out an action brought by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), which had sought a declaration that it was the only provider licensed to use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology for voice telephony services.<\/p>\n
The verdict, which granted the applications to dismiss BTC’s action by its only legal competitor, Systems Resource Group (SRG), and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), overturned a previous decision by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
The Court of Appeal verdict is a victory for liberalisation and competition in the Bahamian telecommunications market, albeit possibly a temporary one, as BTC can now appeal yesterday’s verdict to the London-based Privy Council.<\/p>\n
Observers had viewed BTC’s action as part of its attempts to marginalise SRG, which operates as IndiGo Networks, and drive it out of the market and business altogether.<\/p>\n
IndiGo Networks’ voice telephony network, which currently serves Bahamian business customers only, although it plans to attract residential customers soon; is heavily reliant on the use of VoIP technology.<\/p>\n
If BTC’s action is allowed to proceed; and the 100 per cent government-owned carrier is successful, IndiGo Networks would be unable to use VoIP – something that would strike at the heart of its business.<\/p>\n
Were BTC to succeed in an appeal to the Privy Council, its action would be reinstated, and the case would be remitted to the Supreme Court for a trial on the merits and substantive issues of the case.<\/p>\n
BTC’s action was seeking declaratory relief from the Bahamian courts that it was the only telecoms carrier in the Bahamas authorised to use VoIP in the provision of voice telephony services.<\/p>\n
In turn, it was also looking for a declaration that the PUC did not have the authorisation under the Telecommunications Sector Policy to allow IndiGo Networks to use VoIP.<\/p>\n
However, the PUC’s attorney, (allegedly corrupt) Ferron Bethell at Harry B Sands, Lobosky and Company, and SRG’s attorney, Brian Moree at MeKinney, Bancroft and Hughes, both sought on behalf of their clients to dismiss the BTC action on procedural grounds.<\/p>\n
They argued that BTC’s attempt to seek declaratory relief from the courts was tantamount to an attempt to appeal the PUC’s decision to license IndiGo Networks to use VoIP.<\/p>\n
However, the prescribed timeframe in which BTC could challenge the PUC’s decision had expired, and they argued that BTC was not going down the statutory route but instead using a declaratory, action to achieve its purposes.<\/p>\n
Then-Supreme Court Justice Hartman Longley had ruled in favour of BTC, but the Court of Appeal yesterday overturned that by finding in favour of the PUC and IndiGo’s parent, SRG.<\/p>\n
The ruling, for the moment, stops BTC’s use of this avenue to further squeeze SRG, and preserves the limited amount of telecommunications competition currently tolerated by the Government.<\/p>\n
The Government is currently pursuing two parallel but competing, agendas in telecommunications – privatisation of BTC and
\nliberalisation.<\/p>\n
On one hand it is talking about deregulation, allowing competitors such as SRG into markets such as fixed-line telecommunications, and on the other it is attempting to preserve whatever value is left in BTC to realise the maximum possible privatisation price.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the Government is trying to constrain the inroads made by BTC’s rivais to preserve the latter’s market share and profits.<\/p>\n
The VoIP issue has already created tension between BTC and SRG, with the latter accusing the state-owned carrier of non-cooperation on a variety of interconnection issues.<\/p>\n
Interconnection between BTC’s and SRG’s networks is vital to enable calls that originate on one network to be seamlessly transferred to another.<\/p>\n
Barrett Russell, the PUC’s executive director, told The Tribune earlier this year that the organisation was having to negotiate a “minefield” over the interconnection dispute.<\/p>\n
He added that VoIP was giving the telecoms sector regulator a “headache”, as BTC was alleging that SRG’s use of the technology would allow other, illegal, VoIP operators to have a “bypass” on to its system and steal customers from it.<\/p>\n
A Tribune affiliate holds a small, passive stake of less than 10 per cent in SRG.<\/p>\n
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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