Liberia Communications Authority on Its Development Sector

Monrovia, Liberia: May 20, 2012 The Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) wishes to clarify that contrary to media reports and insinuations that the recent trip made abroad by the Chairperson of the LTA, madam Angelique Weeks, for the purpose of seeking emergency medical treatment for her mother is being sponsored by the LTA is false, inaccurate and misleading.

The LTA wishes to let it be known that said trip is a private one and therefore the LTA could not have committed a dime to the effort, and that the LTA records are there for anyone to see in this regard.

In another development, the LTA’s attention has been drawn to Lonestar’s unilateral and illegal action of announcing that it intended to limit connectivity to its network for Comium consumers, and subsequently following through with its threat without recourse to the LTA, thereby violating Lonestar’s licensing agreement, as well as relevant portions of the Telecom Act of 2007.
Both the Telecom Act and Lonestar’s licensing agreement forbid Lonestar as a service provider from disrupting interconnection between it and any other licensed service provider in the country without the LTA’s expressed approval.

While LTA is indeed aware of Comium’s indebtedness to the Lonestar regarding interconnection fees, the LTA has since assured the Lonestar that the LTA is fully engaged with Comium to expedite a resolution of the problem and had accordingly requested Lonestar to exercise restraint in the interim.

The LTA therefore views this action against Comium consumers as a complete disregard of and disrespect for LTA’s statutory regulatory powers and a serious and blatant violation of a cardinal licensing term and condition under which Lonestar was granted a license.

Meanwhile, it has been brought to the attention of the LTA that Lonestar, contrary to ongoing efforts to foster a Public-Private Partnership in which Lonestar, Cellcom, Libtelco and the Government of Liberia are collaborating to bring in the submarine cable in the country, Lonestar has undertaken to establish a separate fiber backbone by way of San Pedro in Cote d’Ivoire, even though the LTA had since advised all GSM companies wishing to establish cross border fiber connectivity to hold back their horses (or request authorization from the LTA) in this regard so as not to undermine GoL policy on the submarine cable project.

In view of these negative and alarming sector developments, the LTA is considering appropriate regulatory actions that will protect consumers in the country and ensure the timely and successful implementation of GoL policy on fiber optic connectivity in the country.