Judge forces government to come up with a new decision on telecommunication

July 10, 2009 3:33 AM

PHILIPSBURG — The Court of First Instance recently judged that the government of the Netherlands Antilles must come up with a new decision regarding the request for a telecommunication licence of Corporate Innovations NV.

The government refuses to give the company a licence on the grounds of the existing moratorium on the issuance of licences for construction, maintenance, and exploitation of telecom infrastructure for mobile, long-distance- and local telephony. The Council of Ministers implemented the moratorium in October 2003 and renewed it November 2007, in anticipation of a new telecom regulation, which was never established.

In a ‘LAR’-procedure the judge ruled that the Minister of Transport and Communication did not specifically clarify why the moratorium was renewed. The government refused to give insight in the decision process, which led to the moratorium. The Minister argued that other companies had not received a licence either, but the Judge did not consider that sufficient. Corporate Innovations’ request was denied in May 2007. The company is registered on St. Martin where it received a company licence, and was planning to sell its licence to Digicel. Local telecom providers UTS and TelEM had not faith in Digicel. Corporate Innovations lodged an appeal, but the Minister rejected this in November 2007. The judge has now quashed this rejection, and the Minister must come up with a new decision within four months.

(Source: National Newspaper Amigoe)

July 3, 2009