Speednet Saves Big with Court Victory

Ernesto Torres

According to Chief Executive Officer Ernesto Torres, the company stood to lose as much as five million dollars had the CCJ upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal.  As a former employee of Belize Telemedia Limited, Torres says he always understood that the fee was set at a hundred dollars per radio frequency channel.  The decision, he says, vindicates Speednet’s position.

Ernesto Torres, C.E.O., Speednet

“The actual statutory instrument that relates to the spectrum fees was unclear as to whether the word channel meant voice channel or RF channel.  As a former officer of B.T.L., it has always been my understanding and my knowledge that it was in fact based for point to point links because that’s specifically what this issue is about.  It was a hundred dollars per RF channel.  It’s on that basis that we proceeded with the case.  From our perspective, obviously we feel very pleased that we have been vindicated in that position and it does also relate to the fact that the fees go back to what they were supposed to be and that the amount of fees that we would have been charged had we lost the case would obviously be, according to our finance group, would actually have been five million because there were other assignments that were made that we refused to pay simply because of the court case that was pending.  So it’s a big relief.”