At yesterday’s press conference the Prime Minister also made some very
broad swipes at Speednet the parent company for SMART phone service. He stated
plainly that the phone company had benefited from what he characterized as less
than arm’s length negotiations which resulted in interconnection and tower-rental
contracts that were disadvantageous to BTL and to taxpayers.
Well, Speednet fired back today with a lengthy press release. It refutes those
claims saying that, “The comments made by the Prime Minister were
unfounded and.....clearly intended to negatively influence public opinion against
Speednet in order to create a competitive advantage in favour of the now Government
controlled Belize Telemedia Limited.”
But, according to SPEEDNET, more than just playing favourites, the PM mischaracterized
the contracts. The release says, “the Interconnection Agreement made
between Speednet and BTL in February of 2004 was an arms-length negotiated agreement
made by two independently owned companies.... (and) was submitted in March of
2004 to the PUC and approved by the PUC....”
And, as for the tower lease agreements, the Prime Minister said that Speednet
is being charged one thousand per tower rental when a fair market price should
be five times that. Well, Speedent says, not so. According to its release, “the
rental fees for tower leases paid by Speednet are fair and reasonable in comparison
to the fees paid by Speednet to non-Telemedia tower owners.”
The release also states that the agreement to allow SPEEDNET to use BTL towers
is based on common practice in the Caribbean and Central America.
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