Yesterday we had a brief clip from the PUC's press briefing on its "Public Consultation on Assessment of Dominance in Telecommunications."
Even though it is in the Telecoms sector, as we learned, it has nothing to do with the consideration of the proposed Speednet merger.
BTL entered the application for that on January 8th - which is the day before they wanted their board to vote to approve it.
So, if the BTL board had gone ahead with signing the acquisition - or maybe goes ahead when it meets this Friday - what happens then? We asked the PUC's internal legal counsel:
Reporter
"At what point would BTL be in contravention of the spirt of anti competition if they do certain actions?"
Stacey Grinage, Internal Legal Counsel, PUC
"Well, the act specifically speaks about agreements that are made between license holders with the aim of anti-competitive practices, and that is prohibited by the act. So that would be in violation of the act if that is done. But also the PUC where there, where we are, we we, we, we think there may be the act empowers us to act, to make regulations to ensure, compliance and reporting."
Reporter
"So BTL cannot sign an agreement to buy out the shares of Speednet without the PUC first approving that?"
Stacey Grinage, Internal Legal Counsel, PUC
"The PUC's approval is required."
Reporter
"But they can make a board decision to say, okay, yes, that's the direction we're going to go and they won't be in violation of the act."
Stacey Grinage, Internal Legal Counsel, PUC
"Well, I can't speak to the actions of the board, BTL's board."
