PTI, DPL to revive talks on land leases

Renewed talks about Pacific Telecom Inc.’s public land leases are underway following the replacement of the defunct Marianas Public Lands Authority with the new Department of Public Lands.

PTI general manager Tony Mosley said talks between the company and the public lands agency will resume next week, months after efforts to settle their dispute initially fizzled out.

“The new administration so far has been extremely good to us and we’re happy to deal with them,” Mosley said.

Mosley said the talks will resume based on the parties’ mutual decision. A possible settlement may end the legal dispute between the companies at the U.S. District Court.

Mosley said any settlement reached will play a vital role in the company’s bid to have long-term stability.

“[The agency] controls a lot of that destiny. It’s extremely important for us to have long-term stability in the long-term leases,” he added.

The dispute between the then MPLA and the telecom company stemmed from disagreement over easement fees from the use of right-of-way on public lands to bury telecom cables underground. The agency demanded that PTI pay some $2.1 million as easement fees, but the telecom firm disputed this, saying that the easement formed part of its franchise from the CNMI government. The company also said the agency could not retroactively impose the fees.

The MPLA and its board sued PTI and Micronesian Telecommunications Corp., which the company wholly owns, after the companies disputed the agency’s demand for payment of easement fees—less than a month after PTI purchased all of MTC’s common stocks for approximately $60 million.

The lawsuit alleged that the companies breached the terms of public land leases when it improperly used public lands in burying their cables without paying the agency easement fees.

Following the MPLA’s filing of the suit, talks bogged down until then Gov. Juan N. Babauta announced on Oct. 20, 2005 that he had urged the MPLA to get back to the negotiating table. Renewed talks bogged down again on Oct. 27.

On Nov. 2, PTI and MTC sought the transfer of the MPLA’s lawsuit against them from the CNMI Superior Court to Saipan’s federal court, alleging that the agency’s causes of action were based on claims that infringe upon the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

MTC and PTI filed with the federal court a notice of removal, saying that MTC is a duly franchised CNMI telecommunications local exchange carrier subject to the provisions of the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. The companies also accused the MPLA of engaging in discriminatory practices, particularly in the agency’s bid to impose certain public land lease and easement requirements.