Telenor decided to collapse InternetGhana — Witness
A former Chief Officer and management member of Ghana Telecom (GT), now Vodafone, Mr Divine Kpetigo, last Tuesday told the Commercial Court that GT, while it was under the management of Telenor of Norway, took decisive steps to ensure the collapse of Internet Ghana.
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Mr Kpetigo, who appeared in court as a subpoenaed witness, said there had been a “battle” between GT and InternetGhana and, as part of the “strategy” of GT, it ensured that InternetGhana had “died a natural death by 2011”.
Under examination by Mr Benson Nutsukpui, counsel for InternetGhana, witness said deliberate steps were taken by the then GT management, under the leadership of Mr Oystein Biogy, to frustrate the operations of InternetGhana, including the disconnection of its services to clients and preventing its technicians from servicing equipment that had been installed on the premises of GT as part of a collocation agreement.
GT’s advantage
The GT’s advantage, he said, was based on the fact that “InternetGhana depended on GT for survival and so when you cut the umbilical cord that connects them, Internet Ghana cannot operate”.
As part of efforts to frustrate Internet-Ghana, he said, whenever there was a fault on any line belonging to clients of InternetGhana, it took “forever” for GT’s technicians to work on it.
By 2010, Mr Kpetigo said, GT had disconnected all equipment belonging to InternetGhana and barred the latter’s technicians from entering the collocation rooms.
As of 2011 when he was leaving GT, he said, the relationship between the two entities was hostile and the disconnected equipment of InternetGhana had not been returned to the company.
He told the court that by 2003, per the agreement between the two entities, InternetGhana had brought many customers on board who were connected by GT technicians that had been trained by InternetGhana.
Relationship turns sour
He said initially the collaboration between GT and InternetGhana worked very well until a change in management brought in Telenor.
The new Chief Executive Officer of GT, Mr Biogy, directed that the policy or strategy of GT included DSL Internet services, for which reason GT ought to operate that service and so “GT strategised to enter the DSL arena”.
Following that, he said, a team was constituted, made up of GT technicians who had been trained by InternetGhana and it was named “Broadband4U”.
That team, he said, set out to do the same thing that InternetGhana was doing, adding, “So InternetGhana and GT were now competing for the same customers.”
Background
InternetGhana Limited, one of Ghana’s pioneer Internet service providers, has sued GT, now Vodafone, for almost $6 million in what it describes as losses it incurred due to anti-competitive practices by GT.
It has accused GT of undermining its operations and succeeding in collapsing the company through monopolistic and anti-competitive practices.
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