Smart int’l services restored, but not Ladyville connection

When we checked with Smart this afternoon, Ian Courtenay, Public Relations Representative, told News Five that the company’s international service was back on stream and that it is further requesting Telemedia to reconnect other fiber circuits that it disconnected last week.

Ian Courtenay, P.R. Officer, Smart
“Unfortunately, they still have not reconnected our towers in Ladyville and the Benny’s compound so that our Ladyville customers are still undergoing partial service and Vista Del Mar, airport, Ladyville and down to the bridge are getting very little if any service at all. Their proposal gives several steps under which we can come to a final agreement. However, I can say that the agreement is that all our international traffic can go through their switch and of course we will pay an additional fee for that which we are prepared to do.”

Duane Moody
“Was smart getting the service to use the Telemedia towers at extremely low costs?”

Ian Courtenay
“Well, I heard the Telemedia board chairman make that statement this morning. The point that Smart would like to make is that if that is their contention then there is a process of renegotiating. These rates were fixed from back in 2004, 2005.”

As to the contracts which the Public Utilities Commission has declared invalid because it claims it had not been party to them, SMART maintained that these had been renegotiated several times in the past five years and furthermore that proof of the PUC’s involvement was evidenced in its signature on an interconnection rate agreement back in 2005. Smart also says it has requested a meeting with Telemedia and the Chamber of Commerce but it has not gotten a response.