{"id":234189,"date":"2019-09-01T18:47:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T22:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=234189"},"modified":"2019-09-01T18:47:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T22:47:06","slug":"digicel-ends-battle-with-antigua-barbuda-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/digicel-ends-battle-with-antigua-barbuda-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Digicel ends battle with Antigua & Barbuda government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The group the Digicel group that negotiated the deal with the Information Minister Melford Nicholas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Telecommunications company Digicel has decided to end the battle with the Government of Antigua and Barbuda.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

Antigua and Barbuda\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And APUA\/PCS will then be able to offer more services to its growing customer base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in a press statement issued on Friday, Digicel confirmed that a deal had been met and said the company\u00a0 \u201cwelcomes 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish company also said it was happy to have an agreement for the \u201cautomatic continuity\u201d of its licenses beyond 2021 which would allow it to confidently move forward with investment plans in Antigua and Barbuda.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d Digicel had said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

An injunction was sought by Digicel, which was granted pending the hearing of the substantive challenge.<\/p>\n

Both parties are due to return to court on September 23.<\/p>\n

It is expected that the formal withdrawal of the matter will be addressed on that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":234190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[235,42,9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage-carousel","category-media-telecommunications","category-news","category-regional"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDigicel ends battle with Antigua & Barbuda government - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/digicel-ends-battle-with-antigua-barbuda-government\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Digicel ends battle with Antigua & Barbuda government - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Telecommunications company Digicel has decided to end the battle with the Government of Antigua and Barbuda. 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