And while Cabinet waits on that presentation - are they considering something that is completely outside the law? As we reported last night, Belize's Telecommunications Act is specifically designed around the concept of competition. In fact the telecoms laws denote very stiff penalties for any phone company which engages in anti competitive practices.
The former Chairman of the PUC - John Avery - who held that post for 12 and half years - explained that eliminating the competition by buying them out is not a lawful option:
John Avery, Former PUC Chairman
"The chairman of BTL says that one of the problem with competition is a redundancy of of assets. So they don't need redundant assets from Speednet. So what is the purpose for the acquisition? Simply to eliminate the competition. What else is there? And so to me BTL by even considering this purchase and get on and considering these agreements to me in my opinion that's a violation of this section of the law."
"I don't know if BTL needs that to survive, BTL makes far more money than all the other players in the telecommunications industry combined. In fact, their profits might rival the total income from all the other telecom providers."
"The law, which is the government's official policy, says we have done away with that. And we started to prepare to do away with this 38 years ago, and we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars and taxpayers on taxpayers backs to get that competition in."
"So and after all of that, you will now come back and say, we will eliminate everything and put us back where we are."
"My thing is, like I said, the only reason why BTL would want to buy over Speednet -because you don't need the assets, you don't need the license - It's to eliminate. It's to eliminate the competition."
"So in my opinion, when the government says it has nothing to do with it, I find that as if you're abdicating our responsibility, you're the one that implemented this policy 38 years in the making. You had taxpayers of Belize paid hundreds of millions of dollars, all in the name of promoting competition. And now with this move, we would be in the right back where we were in 1987 with that monopoly."
The most serious penalties for violations of the acts include prison time and up to half a million dollars in fines.
