TATT to mediate between telecom giants

A HIGH Court judge has stayed a dispute between TT’s two mobile telecom providers to allow the Telecommunications Authority (TATT) to mediate on a complaint by Digicel who wants its competitor, TSTT, to stop rejecting its subscribers who want to port (switch) their TSTT numbers to the Digicel network.

Justice Nadia Kangaloo last Tuesday agreed to hold off on hearing the claim filed by Digicel to allow TATT to mediate between the concessionaires. The judge provided her written decision on Tuesday. Digicel filed its application for the injunction in July. She refused Digicel's application for an interim injunction against TSTT.

In her ruling, Kangaloo said it cannot be disputed that this is a disputed between two titans in the local telecoms industry and that TATT had a role to play in the matter.

She said she was persuaded, on the basis of the evidence that the matter concerning number portability, that TSTT may have been operating contrary to honest procedures.

Whether that conduct amounts to an act of unfair competition, she said, requires an analysis of evidence which was not an exercise the court has the luxury to embark on, to deliver appropriate remedies to the dispute.

The judge pointed out that she was being asked to make findings on issues which would have an impact on all operators and to delve into these issues, would be to usurp the function of the TATT, which is mandated to monitor and regulate the telecoms industry and prevent anti-competitive actions.

Kangaloo said TATT, in letters to both operators, confirmed it is willing to facilitate meetings between the parties to resolve the dispute and ensure compliance with obligations under the concessions, legislation and regulations. She ordered the court proceedings stayed until such time as TATT exhausts its dispute resolution process.

Digicel had asked the court to restrain TSTT from “rejecting customer requests to port their mobile telephone numbers from TSTT to Digicel TT” for reasons other than what is contained in a February 2016 contract between mobile providers in TT.

Digicel also asked for an order to prevent TSTT from trying to dissuade its customers from looking to port to Digicel. The application says TATT made it mandatory for mobile phone operators to facilitate portability.

The application said there was an “unprecedented increase in rejections by TSTT” during a six month period between January to June 14. It said a total of 9,274 porting requests were submitted by Digicel. There were 2,223 rejections for the six-month period.

In response, TSTT’s position is that the court has no jurisdiction to determine the matters raised by Digicel and it sought an order that the court take no action. It also asked that the claim be stayed permanently and Digicel’s claim struck out. Digicel is represented by attorneys Adrian Byrne and Jason Mootoo while Senior Counsel Martin Daly appears for TSTT.