UDP/GOB can’t unload Belize Telemedia in competitive market – Smart must GO!

Belize City, November 26, 2009

Not so long ago, the United Democratic Party, then in Opposition was agitating for competition in Belize’s telecommunications market, but now that the UDP government has taken over Belize Telemedia, the shoe is on the other foot. Their ill-planned and imprudent nationalization of Telemedia has left them holding the cat in the bag, and they have found that they can’t unload Telemedia on an unwary buyer because Smart’s aggressive gains in market share, 45,000 new subscribers over the past 14 months, make Telemedia unsellable.

The actions of the new management at Telemedia over the past week have clearly indicated that they no longer want fair competition, where the customer benefits from improved services. Instead it would appear the Telemedia management wants a return to the monopoly of the past and has decided that Smart must go. To this end they first offered Smart customers all sorts of sweetheart deal, upgrades in their phones, unlimited FREE SMS for several months for those making the switch, but they underestimated the loyalty of Smart customers to the quality of service they have grown accustomed to with Smart Speednet. The result is that Smart customers did not make the switch in droves as the Telemedia executives had hoped, despite the inflated number that have been reported in other sections of the media.

Driven to desperation, the Telemedia management decided to breach their signed interconnectivity agreement with Smart and abruptly and unilaterally cut international service to all 90,000 Smart customers on Friday evening of November 20. The powers that be at Telemedia had signaled to Smart that they were unhappy with the present interconnectivity agreement in a letter dated November 13, in which they advised Smart they would be cutting the international service. Smart executives responded by inviting Telemedia to propose a quote for what they might consider a reasonable rate for Telemedia to continue to provide the service. When Telemedia proved intractable and refused to negotiate a compromise solution, Smart registered a protest with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on Tuesday, November 17, and the following day advised the Belize Chamber of Commerce of the unreasonable stance Telemedia had taken.

That same day, November 18, the Chamber of Commerce expressed the concern about Telemedia’s anti-competitive attitude in a letter to the PUC, which responded by writing both parties advising Telemdia that it would be in the best interest of the Belize business community that Telemedia continue to honor its existing agreements with Smart Speednet. This advice fell on deaf ears and Telemedia cut off Smart customers’ international service on Friday, November 20.

Smart engineers, in an effort to restore service to customers, used an alternative line which was still up and running, by which Smart had monitored its switching exchange mounted atop a Telemedia building at their St. Thomas Street compound. On Sunday morning, November 22, Smart personnel requested and got access to their equipment at St. Thomas Street and with a slight adjustment, were able to restore international service to their customers.

When Telemedia figured out what the Smart people had done, they cut out that service also on Wednesday, November 25 at 5:00 PM. They justified this action by saying Smart had not given them two weeks advance notice for permission to gain access to the Smart equipment on top of the Telemedia building. But Smart did not need access to the equipment until Telemedia cut its service on Friday, November 18! Should they have waited 2 weeks to restore service to their customers?

As we go to press, BTL has cut service to Smart cellular sites on two towers in Belize City and in Ladyville. There are credible reports that BTL intends to cut Smart service in the north of the country next.

Currently 90,000 Smart customers are being affected by these arbitrary moves by BTL. The jobs of almost 100 employees are at serious risk, as it is obvious that the monster Barrow Telemedia Limited will stop at nothing to destroy its competition. The PUC has shown its true colours and are advising negotiations even though it has been made clear that BTL is not prepared to negotiate. This is hardly surprising considering that GOB/BTL/PUC are all run by the same dictator.

The moves by Prime Minister Dean Barrow in these past months – first to hijack, nationalize and politicize BTL; then to seek to destroy any competition is an outright declaration of war. Here at the Belize Times we have been reliably informed that if Dean Barrow wants war, then it is WAR he will get.

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