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DPL, PTI bury hatchet
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Posted on Nov 05 2006
The Department of Public Lands has set aside its predecessor’s demand that Pacific Telecom Inc. pay for using public lands for the telecommunication’s buried cables since the mid-1990s.
DPL Secretary John S. Del Rosario disclosed last week that the department had signed an agreement with PTI. The deal ended a longstanding legal dispute between PTI and the defunct Marianas Public Lands Authority over easement fees.
“We will not charge them anything. We must make this sacrifice for greater benefits—that is, lower cost of business and opportunities for technological advancement,” Del Rosario said.
“It’s a sure step to preparing the NMI’s investment in telecommunications that would set it up as a future financial hub of the region. It should also give us the opportunity, through the benefits of IT [information technology], to move outside conventional wisdom by exploring cyber classrooms in the near term, as well as telemedicine,” he added.
MPLA had demanded that PTI pay easement fees of some $650,000 for its use of public lands for underground cable lines in 2004 to 2005, and approximately $1.5 million for the preceding 10 years.
PTI had refused to pay, arguing that the buried cables were part of the franchise system. The firm also maintained that the retroactive imposition of an easement fee was unfair, MPLA’s predecessor, the Marianas Public Lands Corp., never expressed any intention to assess those fees on Verizon, which controlled Micronesian Telecommunications Corp. at the time.
Negotiations between both camps failed to result in any compromise. MPLA ended up filing a lawsuit against PTI.
MTC laid underground cable lines on public lands in the CNMI in the 1980s. The buried lines ensure continued communications and the people’s safety during typhoons and other calamities. PTI acquired MTC and its telecommunication assets in 2005.
