A company which applied for the contract to operate Ireland's third mobile phone service has started High Court proceedings challenging the decision by the Director of Telecommunications Regulation to enter into discussions with a rival for the contract.
Orange Communications Limited, of Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, whose parent Orange plc operates the Orange Digital telecommunications network in Britain, was given leave by Mr Justice McCracken yesterday to seek various orders against the director.
Orange is claiming the director has no jurisdiction or competence to consider an application by Meteor Mobile Communications Limited or to grant Meteor a licence, without first considering Orange's application in accordance with law.
Orange also wants a declaration that the director has no jurisdiction or competence to grant a mobile telephony licence to Meteor on foot of a tender competition which was completed on June 19th last.
It is also seeking an order quashing a decision by the director dated June 19th last ranking Meteor ahead of Orange for the Irish phone contract.
The leave was sought by Mr Paul Gardiner, for Orange, who said the tender competition had terminated last month and the director was now, it appeared, engaged in discussions with Meteor, and was proposing to grant the licence for the mobile phone service to that company to the exclusion of Orange.
He was seeking the relief on the basis that the director had failed to comply with provisions of the Postal and Telecommunication Services Act 1983 in that the director failed to notify Orange of her apparent proposal to refuse to grant it a licence or, if she had, that the notification was invalid in not complying with the Act. He also argued that the director had exceeded her powers under the 1983 Act by mis-interpreting and mis-applying the detailed statutory provisions provided for in the Act.
In an affidavit, Mr Thomas Prescott Speed, solicitor and senior legal adviser to Orange Communications Limited, said the applicant's parent had a turnover of approximately £913.7 million worldwide, with two thirds coming from the UK. Its principal business was the operation of the Orange Digital Telecommunications network in the UK and the sale and marketing of Orange services. It also operated through subsidiary companies in the provision of cellular services in France and Germany and held interests in companies which were awarded telephone licences in Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands.
If the Director of Telecommunications Regulation in Ireland planned to refuse to grant a licence to Orange Communications Limited, the director should have notified Orange of her intention, give reasons for her intention and give Orange an opportunity to make representations in relation to the proposed refusal, counsel said.
But, in a letter on June 19th last, the director had said a comparative evaluation of both Meteor and Orange's applications had been completed and she informed Orange that it had been ranked second to Meteor in this regard. The director said she intended to initiate discussions with the higher-ranked applicant with a view to awarding the licence, Mr Speed said.
