As we told you, SMART's gross annual earnings have been touted as 40 million dollars - which would go straight to BTL in the event of an acquisition.
But, between 2016 and 2019, SMART's annual license fee from the PUC, which is calculated at 1.5% of the company's gross, worked out to earnings between 11 and 15 million dollars.
So, was that just under-reporting for the purpose of paying lower license fees? Or has SMART's revenue really increased by 300% over the last 6 years?
This morning on the Plain and Straight morning show former PUC Chairman John Avery says he reviewed those reported gross revenues at the time and felt it was under-reporting:
John Avery, Former Chairman PUC
"Now BTL is complaining about flatlining revenues. It's kind of inconceivable to see how Speednet its revenue could increase from 15 million in 2019,to all of a sudden now 40 million in 2025, because that's when they started this thing. Now they did get government business, but I assure it's not 25 million dollars worth of business. So, as Jules suggested, either that is a phantom figure that is being made up, or it appears that Speednet was lying to the PUC."
"I am more leaning towards the latter one. Because when I was at the PUC I started my own investigation into those same figures that they were reporting to us."
"I didn't believe them at the time about these 13 - 15 million dollars. I just didn't see how you could be making any kind of profit with that."
We have requested SMART's license fees for the last 10 years from the PUC.
