The Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR) has had to extend its deadline for cable and MMDS companies to agree to accept new licences. It follows days of discussions, often extremely heated, with the cable companies who are unhappy at the Regulator, Ms Etain Doyle's proposals.
Ms Doyle has proposed that the cable companies surrender their current licences in return for licences which guarantee them five years' exclusivity in their areas. She asked them to reply to her proposals by yesterday evening, saying if she did not hear from them by this date she would take it that they were not prepared to accept the new licences.
Several cable companies are due to meet the Regulator again today, and possibly tomorrow to try to resolve their differences. Meetings went on into the evening yesterday.
It is understood that Ms Doyle has declined to show cable companies the full terms and conditions which she proposes they will have to operate under. The aim was that companies would officially surrender their licences by January 6th and receive new ones the following day.
Sources said nobody was prepared to accept these conditions and Ms Doyle has been meeting cable and MMDS companies over the past week. To date, it is understood that Ms Doyle has not conceded on the issue of showing the full details of new licences.
It is understood that the companies believe they are being asked to make decisions which are crucial to their business, too quickly, and with not enough information. Last night an ODTR spokeswoman confirmed that the deadline for indicating acceptance of the new licences had been extended "by a couple of days". She confirmed that nobody had accepted the Regulator's proposals.
The licensing issue is extremely important for Cablelink, as its value depends on the terms of its new licence. Already the original tentative timetable for the disposal of the company has been delayed because of it. The issue could yet end up in court and Ms Doyle has indicated that she is prepared to follow the legal route, if certain companies wish to do so. Such an occurrence would be extremely embarrassing for the Government is it would delay the sale of Cablelink, in which Telecom Eireann is a majority shareholder.
