Athaliah Reynolds and Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporters

AT LEAST one telecommunications firm is threatening legal action against the Government if it is not granted a $50 million three-month waiver during which it will not pay any monies into the Universal Access Fund (UAF).

The company said the waiver was necessary to give it time to recover from losses suffered because of the Government's failure to collect $55 million in mandatory levies from two providers under the UAF.

Steve Twomey, president and chief executive officer of Reliant Enterprise Communications Ltd., is claiming that the two telecommunications providers were allowed to operate without paying the required funds into the UAF.

According to Twomey, this "allows these companies to offer prices to their customers at lower rates, which in turn has placed the company at a disadvantage, resulting in direct severe economic harm."

Documents obtained by The Gleaner showed that the attorneys representing Reliant Enterprise wrote to Phillip Paulwell, the Minister of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, in December 2006 outlining their claims.

When contacted yesterday, Mr Twomey said he had not received a response from the Minister and he was currently in dialogue with his legal team strategising the way forward. However, he also said the management of the UAF Company Ltd., which manages the funds collected from the carriers, told him they did not have the autonomy to grant his request.

"It's a matter of how to deal with the situation," Mr. Twomey said. "Who do you go after do you include the Ministry, do you include UAF, do you include the companies that have not paid or do you go after one of those three?"

He added: "We will probably know something in a couple of weeks."

Hugh Cross, managing director of the UAF, acknowledged that the two providers were in fact allowed to operate for several months without making their required payments to the organisation, pending an investigation.

He confirmed that the two companies owed $18 million and $37 million respectively but said both companies are no longer allowed to terminate inbound international calls.

Responding to Gleaner queries last night, a representative of the company that allegedly owes the $37 million said they were currently challenging the validity of the levy in court. He also argued that his company believed it had satisfied the requirements of the law.

Meanwhile, the Ministry said yesterday it had 'stayed' the licence of another telecommunications firm, Solutrea Jamaica Limited, for what it terms a failure to satisfy specified requirements.

A release issued by the Ministry said Solutrea failed to make the requisite payments to the Spectrum Management Authority, which was a condition upon which the licence was granted. As a result, the Ministry said, the suspension would be in effect until such conditions were satisfied.

"It has been brought to my attention that Spectrum management authority has not received payment for the mobile spectrum licence which was issued to Solutrea Jamaica Ltd. Therefore, I hereby stay the decision to offer the said licence until payment is received and all conditions remain fully satisfied, Mr. Paulwell said.

At the same time, Clive Mullings, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman for Mining, Energy and Telecommunications, slammed the Minister's decision to only suspend Solutrea's licence.

Mr. Mullings said the only acceptable decision to be made in this case is to render the entire agreement "null and void".

He further argued that the Minister misled the country when he announced the issuing of the licence because he had full knowledge that the preconditions had not been met.