Rights of Subscribers Are Sacrificed to the Controversy between Caucasus Online and United Telecom

Nona Suvarian, Tbilisi

Subscribers of the Caucasus Online have been without internet for several days already. The reason for the delay is the deconstruction of network; it was done last week by the Tbilisi City Hall Supervision Service Department. The officials from the Tbilisi City Hall state that Caucasus Online did not have right to stretch wires from one to another roof. The people from the company think that the real reasons of the deconstruction were quite different that are connected with the controversy between them and United Telecom. The latter intends to destroy the Caucasus Online finally. In any case, the subscribers of the Caucasus Online are damaged. The situation showed that the rights of the internet-users are not protected in Georgia.

“Caucasus Online supplies its subscribers with the internet through the wires of the United Telecom. Vakhtang Tsetskhladze, lawyer for the Caucasus Online, pointed out that the controversy between these two companies started since foreign investors purchased the United Telecom and internet-service became one of the priorities of the company. Before that, the Telecom provided only telecommunication. Since the United Telecom became the rival of the Caucasus Online, the former launched open fight against them.

Vakhtang Tsetskhladze: “The point is that Telecom switches off our subscribers illegally; they do not allow us to add new subscribers; based on the agreement we can add only 150 subscribers a week; they increased the tax for the wire that is necessary to provide DSL service for the subscriber at the house. Before, we paid 3, 5 GEL for the wire, now we have to pay 11, 68 GEL. The price was increased three times. Before we paid 50 USD for one square meter of the leased space; now we pay 600 GEL.

They published the proposal to us where it was written that we can enter the station only during working hours; though our apparatus is placed in the station and we pay money for leasing the space. Besides that, we should continuously work with the apparatus in order to avoid delays in the internet supply.

Representatives of the United Telecom speak about other reasons. Caucasus Online owes three million GEL to the Telecom and there is no agreement between them.

Levan Giorgadze, lawyer for the United Telecom, said all taxes that are estimated by them should not be argued and they are confirmed by the National Commission of Communication. The United Telecom does not have so high tax that does not comply with the legislation.

“The only issue for the argument is the tax on location that is said to be very high. However, we took measures and made the tax reduced at half price.”

Representatives of the Caucasus Online claim that debt of 3 million GEL is unreal.

Vakhtang Tsetskhladze: “The debt accumulated from the lease sum of the pairs. We pay monthly bills. Simply, the data figures in their and our documents differ. According to our figures, the debt is 878 295 GEL. We sent letters to the Telecom twice and met them once. We offered to pay the debt immediately though requested to have exact list of the pairs we were using at the moment. We wanted to compare their data and the sum of debt we the ones we had. However, we have not received any reply from them.”

Because of the problems of the subscribers the company appealed to the court. The court passed verdict based on which the United Telecom was forbidden to cut off subscribers of the Caucasus Online partially or completely. That means the subscribers that received the internet from the Caucasus Online through the United Telecom will not be switched off any more. If any incident happens, the criminal case will be launched.

Levan Giorgadze, lawyer of the United Telecom, considers that the court decision is illegal and incorrect. The Telecom has already appealed against the verdict. “As soon as the verdict is cancelled, unless the relationship between our companies improves, we will think off canceling the service for the Caucasus Online. However, we hope it will not happen because we do not want to breach the rights of the subscribers’ rights.”

The lawyer for the Caucasus Online is sure that the conflict between the two companies increased since serious investments entered into the Caucasus Online and it started to build new network. Since the United Telecom did not allow the Caucasus to work in normal regime, the latter decided to build its own network in the city in order to supply its subscribers with cheaper and high quality internet.

Vakhtang Tsetskhladze: “Gelink” has been working successfully for more than one year. Now somebody remembered that we needed permission for that. Our company possesses all necessary permits. There are no permits estimated for stretching wires from one to another roof. The point is that permits are not necessary for that. If an official from the City Hall claims that it is communication constructions they should prove us that their statements are based on the legislation or resolutions. If we need permission for similar activity then every wire should have its own permit; for example the wire that is stretched from the house to garage. The companies, Electricity Connection as well, have been using similar wires for several years already; though none of them have similar permits. This is true. We requested information from the City Hall but of course similar information has not reached us because it does not exist.”

Vakhtang Tsetskhladze considers that Tbilisi City Hall supports the United Telecom to destroy Caucasus Online with its activities. “We have a video-recording where the representatives of the City Hall and the United Telecom are cutting off wires illegally.”

Davit Avaliani, the head of the Supervision Service Department, persuades us that the City Hall does not act as a party to this conflict; it just acts under the law. “We have no connection with the controversy. The Resolution # 140 of the authority, issued on August 11 2005, states that internet is source of communication.”

Article II paragraph “f” defines: “the communication constructions are: roadway, railway, all sorts of pie-lines, sewerage systems, air and wire communication lines; as well as electro-transmitters and communication lines. Internet also belongs to the group. According to the paragraph “I” of the same article the constructions that needs permits are the building on the land; group of complex of buildings that must be constructed or other buildings that can be constructed on them.”

The article III lists all those constructions that do not need permits. There is list of 12 sub-paragraphs. The article does not indicate communication constructions as free of permits. They provided agreement to us on carrying out the activities on the land. No other documents were provided to us.

Vakhtang Tsetskhladze: “In order to install the network of the Gelink, Caucasus Online uses roofs of the buildings which are privatized by commonwealths and private persons and the company has signed personal agreement with them.

In the document inhabitants of the building agree to use the service of Geolink. Officials of the Tbilisi City Hall have information about this service very well; however, they still cut off thousands of subscribers.

Consequently, there is question-if the supervision service department of the City Hall has right to deconstruct similar construction within its competence, why they started dismantling today and not before?”

Ordinary subscribers of the internet are damaged by the controversy between the Caucasus Online and United Telecom. The situation showed that the rights of the subscribers are breached. The National Commission of Communications also discussed the issue. Commission members state that Caucasus Online breached the rights of its subscribers. The company renewed the discussion three times. Kakhi Kurashvili, the lawyer of the commission, underlined that they paid attention to facts and not PR war between these companies.

Kakha Kurashvili, lawyer of the regulation commission: “In this case, the rights of the subscribers of the Caucasus Online were breached. The contracts with these people state that Caucasus should supply the subscribers with internet without delay. The supply can be stopped only in forts major situation. For example, during the war situation. In this case the company could be free of charge for the delay. But when the delay is caused by the debts and non-regulated contract relationships with the Telecom we cannot assess the situation as forts major. Thus we think that Caucasus Online has broken the responsibilities it has assumed before its subscribers in the contracts. Although the commission fixed terms for the companies to sign contracts, they have not done it yet.”

The representatives of the commission think that the Caucasus Online should pay for the service as much as Telecom demands for it; because the commission has estimated the limited tax for the service and United Telecom has not exceeded it yet.

The only tool to protect the subscribers’ rights, according to commission, is fine; but Kakhi Kurashvili thinks that fine will not resolve the situation.

“If a subscriber appeals to us against the Caucasus Online, the only thing we can do is to impose huge fines on the Caucasus Online that will be 0.5 % of its annual income. However, will it improve the situation? Will both parties sign contract if we fine them for not having signed one so far? I do not believe that, because we have done it before and it did not change anything. Sometimes, fines work. In this case, both companies are very aggressive towards each other; so I think, finally we might think of fines again.”