Eircom has brought a High Court appeal against a decision of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation on how the company should make available its interconnector network to other operators.
On the application of Mr John Gleeson, for the regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, yesterday, Mr Justice Peter Kelly issued directions on the exchange between the parties of a statement of claim and a defence. He also granted Esat Telecom liberty to bring a motion seeking notice of the matter or whatever other orders they considered necessary.
Mr Gleeson said the regulator will be later seeking a decision on the nature and scope of Eircom's appeal and how it should proceed. This was very much at issue, he said.
Counsel noted the absence of regulations on how such appeals should be run and said the challenge successfully taken by Orange Communications against the regulator's decision to award the third mobile phone licence to Meteor Mobile Communications was not of assistance in terms of setting a precedent because it dealt with different regulations.
Every decision the regulator makes is open to appeal and there was no clarity on how this should be done, he said.
The matter was urgent because the regulator's decision was suspended until it was resolved and this affected the entire telecommunications market, Mr Gleeson added.
Eircom's appeal is against the regulator's decision dealing with Eircom's interconnector arrangements with other operators.
Mr Justice Kelly said appeals such as Eircom's were common and said it would be of assistance if the court rules committee deals with the issue of the nature and scope of such appeals.
Ms Niamh Hyland, for Esat Telecom, said it was not a party to the proceedings but believed it was entitled to notice of them. The regulator had laid down 32 directions on how Eircom should comply with European Commission regulations in regard to making available its interconnector network. Many of these directions were of benefit to Esat and critical to its performance.
Counsel said Eircom had set up a working group which involved some of the 15 other telecommunications operators in a bid to resolve some of the problems and Esat was a member of that group. The group had sent a report to the regulator.
Mr Peter Charleton SC, for Eircom, said Esat had no standing in the matter at all. Eircom had a clear legal right to appeal the regulator's decision. Esat could make its case to be represented in some form in the proceedings at a later stage when the court was dealing with the issue of the nature and scope of Eircom's appeal, he said.
Mr Justice Kelly said he would grant Esat liberty to bring a motion seeking whatever orders they wanted.
