SingTel, StarHub reach out-of-court deal
TODAYonline
Tuesday September 4, 2007
Johnson Choo
[email protected]
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and StarHub said yesterday
they have reached an out-of-court settlement on disputes that arose
from the 1995 Network Lease Agreement (NLA) and 2002 Network Lease
Agreement signed between SingTel and StarHub Cable Vision (formerly
known as Singapore Cable Vision).
Details of the agreement were confidential and not made available,
but the telcos said the settlement will put to rest all outstanding
issues between the companies over the two agreements on StarHub's
use of SingTel's fixed-line telecommunications network.
"We are pleased with the amicable out-of court settlement," said Mr
Allen Lew, CEO Singapore of SingTel. "The matter has run its course
(and) It is time to move on and focus on our business to develop
and grow Singapore's Infocomm industry."
StarHub's CEO, Mr Terry Clontz, said the "disputes have gone on
long enough. It is necessary to have a closure on this chapter and
move on to more meaningful activities that will augment Singapore's
position as a world-class infocomm and media hub".
The disputes centre on SingTel's claims that StarHub misused its
network to serve non-residential properties such as schools,
embassies and a few firms in the town area, and resulted in a delay
of the islandwide roll-out of cable televisions to homes, with some
20,000 households not cabled as of the beginning of 2007.
SingTel sued StarHub in 2003, and the Infocomm Development
Authority had then confirmed SingTel's claim the NLA signed in 1995
only covered the provision of cable services to residential
properties.
When the case was first heard by Justice Kan Ting Chiu in September
2004, it ended with the judge handing an empty victory to SingTel
in April 2005. While StarHub did violate the contract, Justice Kan
dismissed SingTel's claim for damages, citing a clause that
indemnified both parties from "indirect, incidental" damages.
Appealing to the Court of Appeal made up by former-Chief Justice
Yong Pung How, Judge of Appeal Chao Hock Tin and Justice Belinda
Ang, SingTel was awarded the crucial right to a damages payout from
StarHub at the beginning of 2006.
StarHub had claimed that SingTel was seeking damages amounting to
about $32 million for each year of breach, or $22,000 per building
every month.
SingTel said yesterday the out-of-court settlement would not have
any material impact on the telco, while StarHub said it "will not
have any negative impact on us financially as we have already
provisioned for such cost previously."
