‘Extend Verizon sale deadline to Sept. 30’

Micronesian Telecommunications Corp. and Pacific Telecom, Inc. yesterday asked the Commonwealth Telecommunications Commission anew to extend the deadline to close the multi-million-dollar sale of Verizon to Sept. 30.

Steven Carrara, attorney for the companies, formalized the request in a letter to CTC executive director Adam Turner. It appeared that the CTC would grant the request.

Initially, the companies asked the CTC to extend the deadline from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7. The CTC had scheduled a meeting on Aug. 31, but this was canceled due to the onslaught of Typhoon Nabi.

“Although the CTC has not yet had the opportunity to meet to consider the initial request, it informed the joint applicants [MTC and PTI] that it would prefer granting an extension until the end of September rather than several short-term extensions,” Carrara said in his letter to Turner.

“The joint applicants continue to work diligently to attend to a number of legal matters that remain outstanding but are confident that these matters can be resolved within the requested extension,” the lawyer added.

PTI president Jose Ricardo P.R. Delgado expressed optimism that his company could close the deal with MTC and take over Verizon’s operations even before the Sept. 30 deadline.

CNMI consumer counsel Brian Caldwell, who made oppositions to the sale together with Gov. Juan N. Babauta at the CTC proceeding, said he has no intention of opposing the companies’ request for deadline extension. Caldwell and Babauta had expressed support for the sale after the CTC issued a final order allowing the sale to proceed.

The Marianas Public Lands Authority has withheld its decision to give its consent to the transfer of some four land leases from MTC to PTI, which is necessary to consummate the PTI-MTC deal.

Negotiations between the MPLA and Verizon continue. One of those issues being discussed in the negotiations include the renewal of Verizon’s lease for its Susupe facility, which MPLA attorney Ramon Quichocho said was very close to being settled in an interview Tuesday last week. Also being negotiated is a permit agreement for public lands easement for Verizon’s underground cable. Of the 11 land leases Verizon has with the MPLA, Quichocho said four of them explicitly require the agency’s consent to their assignment from the original lessee.

Delgado expressed optimism that Verizon and the MPLA would reach a settlement soon. He reiterated PTI’s intention to close the deal as soon as the MPLA gives its consent to the assignment of certain public lands leases from the MTC.

Once PTI takes over Verizon’s operations, there will be an end to interisland long distance charges for calls within the CNMI, pursuant to the 27-point settlement agreement that the companies reached in May 2004 with the intervenors in the CTC proceeding, the governor and the CNMI consumer counsel.

The agreement provided that there would be no local rate hike for two years from the transaction’s closing and that PTI would invest a minimum of $20 million in capital expenditures during the next five years. PTI recently disclosed that there would be no change in Verizon’s management and employees, except for the board’s membership. PTI has also disclosed its interest to become a regional player in the Pacific islands, and that it would join the National Exchange Carrier Association.