Following the settlement of two regional telecom’s firms recent legal battles Digicel and LIME look set for another round in the law courts.
LIME Antigua has now filed suit in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court against Digicel seeking to have its rival…
Following the settlement of two regional telecom’s firms recent legal battles Digicel and LIME look set for another round in the law courts.
LIME Antigua has now filed suit in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court against Digicel seeking to have its rival stopped from bypassing its international network. LIME is also asking for of US$28m which it says Digicel owes as a result of the last three years of the alleged misdemeanour. LIME said that it had already written and asked Digicel to stop bypassing, however, it had not done so and as a result LIME was now taking legal action.
“Lime has requested that Digicel cease and desist, with immediate effect, from illegally bypassing LIME’s international network. LIME is also seeking redress in the sum of US$28m, which represents revenue that LIME and the Antigua Public Utilities Authority have lost over the past three years because of Digicel’s bypass activities,” LIME said in a statement.
“LIME has determined that Digicel Antigua is engaged in bypass activities in relation to the origination and termination of international calls out of and into Antigua and Barbuda in contravention of the exclusive licence under which LIME operates,” Don Austin, LIME’s Executive Vice President for Legal and Regulatory said.
“This action by Digicel has resulted in significant financial losses to both LIME and APUA and by extension the Government of Antigua and Barbuda.
“We wrote to Digicel some weeks ago asking that they put a halt to these activities failing which we would have to pursue other options available to us. They have not discontinued the bypass activities and we therefore had no other recourse but to initiate legal action seeking legal redress through the law courts,” he added.
The two rival communications firms have only recently settled their legal differences following a suit Digicel had brought against Cable & Wireless claiming it had intentionally delayed Digicel’s entry into markets in the Caribbean between 2002 and 2006. Digicel lost the most part of the case in the UK High Court and was forced to pay costs of US$23.4m to its competitor.
