Court orders B.T.L. to roll back rates

A decision in the Supreme Court today may mean an early Christmas for the nation’s telephone users. The ruling is complicated, but essentially Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh ruled that the stop order issued late last year by then Minister Responsible for Telecommunications, Ralph Fonseca, is valid, and the price increases made at that time are illegal and must be rolled back. At the time, B.T.L. won a temporary injunction against the stop order and the so-called “tariff rebalancing” was allowed to proceed. The new rates radically increased the cost of local service, while cutting prices on international, cellular and inter-district calls. Exactly what will happen next is not crystal clear. It appears that as of today the price of monthly line rental will roll back from twenty to twelve dollars per month for residential customers and fifty to twenty for businesses. The price per minute for local calls will also be cut in half to the old rate five cents per minute. As for these rates that were lowered in the rebalancing, it is not certain what will happen, as the coming reality of competition will make it difficult for B.T.L. to push rates to a level that will drive customers into the waiting arms of Intelco. And what about those eleven months of higher local charges? According to the court, consumers should receive a refund, in many cases amounting to hundreds of dollars per phone line. It is believed, however, that B.T.L. will appeal the decision and during that time the Court of Appeal could stay the execution of the judgement until the appeal is heard. We’ll have more on tomorrow’s newscast.