If you own a SMART phone, you may not be able to make international long distance calls after Friday and SMART says that’s because BTL is sabotaging it. A release from the phone company this evening says that on Friday BTL will be terminating the circuits that carry its outgoing international voice and roaming services. According to SMART, it will mean the loss of international calling service to over 90,000 customers. According to SMART, Telemedia says that no alternative service will be made available to Speednet.
That’s some serious hardball but BTL says SMART is misstating the case. Yes, they are losing access to the service which allows SMART customers to call long distance. That service is owned and controlled by BTL. But mighty BTL says that, “Speednet wants to continue bullying” it. According to a BTL release, SMART is in fact being subsidized by BTL through unfair pricing agreements – agreements which were, “signed when one group had interests in both companies.”
The release says that BTL will not continue to subsidize SMART and adds that basically they must make their own investment arrangements. BTL closes its release by saying that, “any loss of service to (SMART) customers will be an act of self-sabotage...”
And where does the PUC – which should act as umpire between these groups stand? Chairman John Avery told us when he left the office at 4:30 today – he had not received any official complaint from SMART. A SMART rep told us they did send one. In the meantime SMART says it will allow its customers to call the PUC Toll Free to make complaints.
