… WHILE SPEEDNET SEEKS SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM

November 20, 2009

Earlier today BTL, the nation’s largest telecommunications provider, succeeded in removing Speednet from its ARCOS fiber optic system. The move effectively halts subscribers of its rival cellular service provider from making calls abroad. Speednet however is not taking it lying down and according to its Chief Executive Officer Ernesto Torres the company is doing all it can to return full service to its customer within the next few days.

Ernesto Torres; Chief Executive Officer, Speednet

"We are exploring all our options; legal and otherwise. One of our primary concerns right now is to make sure that our customers get back their international. We are hoping that by Sunday we will get that. We are trying to source bandwidth elsewhere. Telemedia has made it perfectly clear that they do not want to offer it to us. The way this thing is going to be solved is that Telemedia needs to grant Speednet access to the our customary cable. That cable is there to be used in Belize for legitimate purposes by specially license carriers and there is no reason why that should be denied. Once that is provided this whole problem goes away."

Speednet does not wish to disclose who or where it is seeking bandwidth from but Torres maintains that Telemedia’s action to some extent constitutes a breach of contract.

Ernesto Torres; Chief Executive Officer, Speednet

"One thing is to give your lessee lets say three months, two months or whatever the case may be. Say listen I am going to terminate this. That is understandable because for example when you rent a house you get a pretty decent advance notice. Here we got four working days. ARCOS is a consortium; Belize owns I think less than one percent but it is still an owner. But there is what you call a construction and maintenance agreement that Telemedia is a signatory to, to all the other parties that make up the consortium. If you look at that agreement they are mandated to make as a landing party, to make that cable available to other entities in the country because it is for business use."

You would recall that since government assumed control of Telemedia it has been engaged in a fierce marketing campaign against Speednet including a promotion where rival customers can redeem Smart phones to Telemedia in return for a promotional package. When asked if this can be seen as the proverbial ‘nail in the coffin’ here is what Torres had to say.

Ernesto Torres; Chief Executive Officer, Speednet

"I am not sure it is the final blow because it will take more than this to bring Speednet down. Clearly it is one of a series of many things that Telemedia would like to do to disrupt the operations of Speednet. If you are going to destabilize the telecommunications industry by denying 90 thousand subscribers access to international services on extremely short notice then how else do you interpret that?"

Torres says that in the future Speednet will establish its own cellular network.

Ernesto Torres; Chief Executive Officer, Speednet

"Starting next year we are going to be installing a brand new network that is going to offer high speed broad band to your mobile phone. We are doing fear amount of much better services than we are currently offering. The process of detaching Speednet from Telemedia will begin with that, where our switch and other equipment that goes along with it will be located right in this building. That is the first thing. Now, clearly for us to go build a parallel network takes time. You do not just build a tour in a month. It will take us some time but that is the intent."

Speednet maintains that the service it provides its customers remains its number one priority and that it should resolve and inconveniences caused within a timely manner.

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