Interconnection, that's the single silver bullet that has plunged the telecom industry into chaos over the last 20 months. In November of 2003 government took the decision to borrow US$57 million and buy Michael Ashcroft's controlling interests in BTL. Why? Because government claimed that he refused to give Intelco interconnection, refused to make room for competition and they had found a new company, Jeff Prosser's ICC that would, said the spinmeisters, happily move things along. Well...we all know what happened there. But that still accumulating textbook of ruin is the story for another time, tonight the story is interconnection. Many sins have been committed in its name but was the stretch for interconnection even necessary in the first place? Government had and continues to paint Ashcroft's BTL as the bad guy, refusing to let Intelco breathe. Yesterday the Prime Minister repeated that contention but when he did so, he contradicted what Michael Ashcroft told us in an interview conducted in March of 2004. Tonight, we'll play both sides of that tale and let you decide.
Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
"In terms of denying interconnection, the history is there to show that BTL, under the management then, refused to provide interconnection."
Jules Vasquez,
So Michael Ashcroft lied to me?
Said Musa,
"That is your conclusion. He told you many things I am sure."
Lord Michael Ashcroft, BTL Shareholder
[March 2004] "You can always tell when a politician lies is when his lips are moving and we've certainly seen a lot of lips moving recently. But as far as competition is concerned again the record is quite clear, we've always said that BTL does fear competition as long as the playing field is leveled. The problem is that it never has been leveled and as far as interconnection is concerned, for a long time Intelco was not in a position to take advantage of Intelco and then of course we had the process to go through by which the law says both parties negotiate and if you cannot arrive at a rate it then goes to the PUC. However not withstanding that, last year the government did approach BTL and wanted Intelco connected and we were happy connect Intelco at the rates proposed by the government for the period of time that the government asked us to interconnect as an entry measure for 90 days and during that 90 day period discussion would commence on what would be a fair long term rate or formula for interconnection. I had no problem with that provided that if Intelco and BTL did not come to an agreement that the matter was put to international arbitration and that was the issue on which Intelco found it difficult to accept interconnection."
Before leaving BTL in April of 2004, Ashcroft's management team agreed to an interconnection agreement and six other agreements with the Briceno owned Speednet which received financing from the Belize Bank.
