Cease and desist with interconnection! That's what Jeff Prosser wants Speednet to do. 7NEWS has obtained a letter that Prosser sent to Speednet on Friday warning Chairman Jaime Briceno that a memorandum of understanding that he signed with BTL CEO Gaspar Aguilar on March 1st is illegal. Illegal because according to Prosser, the government-managed BTL violated a temporary restraining order issued by a Federal District Court in Miami when it entered into the agreement with Speednet. With that, Prosser's letter states that, "Belize Telecom demands that Speednet immediately rescind the MOU and disconnect Speednet's mobile network from BTL's fixed and mobile network."
That's strong talk and it would see an abrupt end to the interconnected phone network which is currently up and running. And Speednet chair, Jaime Briceno says the threat won't affect his business and is determined that it won't end interconnection. He told us today that Prosser's ICC had signed off on this project from late last year, committing to interconnection by December 1st. That had been delayed by all the changes, but Briceno stressed that now that they have interconnection, plans remain in place for full commercial startup at month's end.
If all this sounds a little crazy: as in how can Jeffrey Prosser be giving orders and making demands when he didn't pay for the company, and has been ousted from the Chairman's seat...well, like everything else to do with government's selling off of BTL, it's a long story and a tangled mess. Prosser claims that government, even with the Carlisle shares, which represent 52% of the shares and controlling interest, is a minority shareholder. That's because Prosser now claims, contrary to a December press release from him, that he did not after all rescind the issuance of 24 million shares to his company.
Whether he did or did not rescind is one of the matters that is currently before the Federal District Court in Miami. But the most pressing matter before that Miami Court is whether the March 1st MOU violated Federal Judge Ursula Ungaro Benages's restraining order. And she is expected to announce her decision on that tomorrow.
But according to a late evening release from BTL, there's nothing for that Miami judge to decide. The release makes it clear that the MOU was, "simply a reference document to record outstanding issues." According to the release, those issues were finalized in contracts and negotiations undertaken first by Ashcroft's managers and then on February 4, 2005, Prosser's managers certified the interconnection process. With that BTL's release concludes that whatever was in the MOU was really just the tying up of loose ends relating to old, already agreed-upon business. It's yet to be seen if that argument will find favor with the Miami judge.
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