US telecoms giant AT&T said on Monday it was putting legal action against South African state operator Telkom on hold after the two sides reached an interim agreement on a backlog of unfulfilled orders.
But in another twist to its long-running battle with value-added service providers, Telkom said it would appeal against a ruling by the country’s industry regulator that it was guilty of anti-competitive behaviour by withholding bandwidth from AT&T.
”It’s an interim agreement that will remain in place pending an application by Telkom to Icasa (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) for a review of its ruling,” Telkom’s senior media relations manager Andrew Weldrick told Reuters.
AT&T’s managing director in South Africa, Peter Davies, said that the US company was satisfied with the arrangement, which would enable the company to provide the backbone of its service requirements in South Africa now.
”We are putting all legal action on hold provided they in fact do what they said — and we are confident that the Icasa ruling will stand,” he said.
Davies said Telkom had agreed to provide AT&T with 13 outstanding bandwidth orders which the operator had earlier refused to provide. It has accused several private networking firms of providing services which flout its monopoly.
Telkom’s monopoly over fixed-line telecommunications expired in May, but licensing a rival has been delayed by fierce legal wrangling over the regulatory framework. – Reuters