Telecommunications company Digicel has decided to end the battle with the Government of Antigua and Barbuda.
The Irish company had accused the Gaston Browne-led Labour Party government of seeking to confiscate some of its high-speed spectrum to redistribute it to state-owned rival, Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA).
Antigua and Barbuda’s Telecommunication Minister, Melford Nicholas told a Cabinet press briefing on Thursday that Digicel will transfer 2 megs of the 850 band and 9 megs of the 900 band to APUA.
He said Digicel will also discontinue its lawsuit against the Government and APUA. The APUA will now seek a final settlement with Cable and Wireless/FLOW for transfer of 3 megs of the 850 band.
And APUA/PCS will then be able to offer more services to its growing customer base.”
Meanwhile, in a press statement issued on Friday, Digicel confirmed that a deal had been met and said the company “welcomes this positive engagement and believes this signals a new era of constructive relations with the Government and will benefit citizens, businesses as well as the government and government services in Antigua & Barbuda.”
The Irish company also said it was happy to have an agreement for the “automatic continuity” of its licenses beyond 2021 which would allow it to confidently move forward with investment plans in Antigua and Barbuda.
The entire battle started back in May, after the Antigua government gave Digicel and Flow three weeks to relinquish some of their 850 megahertz spectrum.
At the time, Digicel claimed the move would force it to spend $25 million on rebuilding its network, and it accused the local government of allowing anti-competitive behaviour and protectionism.
The private company had also contended that APUA already controlled twice as much spectrum as Digicel and Flow, although it did not specify the type of spectrum.
“In any other market this would be a cause for concern for the regulator. But uniquely, in Antigua and Barbuda, APUA is also the regulator, and hence holds the roles of both referee and player, allowing for protectionist and anti-competitive behaviour to run amok,” Digicel had said.
But, the government rejected the statement, and said it was false to state that APUA was the regulator when in fact it was not, and is not, the regulator.
An injunction was sought by Digicel, which was granted pending the hearing of the substantive challenge.
Both parties are due to return to court on September 23.
It is expected that the formal withdrawal of the matter will be addressed on that day.
Again I congratulate the prime minister for his continued struggle of obtaining more suitable agreements from foreign investors for Antigua and Barbuda.
That’s what we’re taking about. In Antigua they appoint an experienced person to lead telecom, here we send a junior guy on a 3 month course to lead telecom(correct me if wrong, maybe he is a telecom guru). Our guy said ya ya Digi is great, big tings a gwan, let’s hand em a 100 mil contract yak yak yak. Over there they say na na wait a while, we want a piece of the pie. Big man ting dat.! By the way, one set here sold the power co, the other set going to invest half a billion on geothermal them hand it to Domlec who is not going to forgo the profits that they are used to and save us money, no, they are not … with all the billion talk, can’t we just go big and purchase DOMLEC?
Its only a fool that will allow a foreign competitor to come and beat him on his on soil. Digicel and Flow should be more than grateful for what they have gotten so far, and should just keep quiet.
They would not have gotten not 1 zilch of spectrum if it was in China. In their own countries, they use sophisticated legislation to keep external competition at bay including convenient claims of “national security”. So stop this hypocritical crying.
Is only a foolish govt like in D/ca, that give external people advantage over their own people, everywhere else put their people first
It is always better to JAW-JAW than to WAR-WAR.
Amicable arbitration or negotiation is always preferred to litigation and is more beneficial to all parties, especially when the populace will be affected.
Three cheers to the negotiating parties on both/all sides.