The Supreme Court said yesterday it would set the earliest possible date for the hearing of an appeal against the setting aside of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation's decision to award the third mobile phone franchise to Meteor Communications.
Counsel for Meteor told the court that, because of multi-million pound losses incurred through the delay in the franchise coming into operation, there was a point where the third franchise might not be worthwhile.
The regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, and Meteor are both seeking to overturn a High Court decision upholding a challenge by British telecoms firm Orange to her decision to award the third licence to Meteor.
In a 247-page judgment delivered on October 4th after a 50-day hearing, Ms Justice Macken granted Orange an order overturning the regulator's decision and said she should fully reconsider the matter.
Ms Justice Macken found her decision was objectively biased and unreasonable. She also ruled that the regulator's failure to give Orange adequate reasons for its refusal was wrong in law.
At the Supreme Court yesterday, Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, for the regulator, said his client was seeking an early date for an appeal hearing which he estimated could take five days.
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton, estimated it would take another five days for the Supreme Court to read the parties' written submissions, which would, in accordance with normal practice, be given to the court before the hearing.
Mr O'Donnell said the case arose out of the liberalisation of mobile phone systems across Europe. Ireland was in breach of EU regulations in this matter and all parties agreed that case should be dealt with urgently.
Because of the current situation, the mobile phone market was being deprived of a third player and, in turn, this service was being denied to the consumer, counsel added.
Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for Meteor, said that at the early stage of the High Court challenge it was estimated monthly losses of about £10 million (€12.7 million) were being sustained because of the delay in the franchise coming into operation.
This figure could now be more, he said. This was because the longer the delay in awarding the third licence, the harder it would be for the third operator to become established.
There was a point where it might not be worthwhile to secure the third licence. Meteor had 45 full-time employees whose position was very uncertain.
Mr Gallagher asked that the court hear the appeal before Christmas.
Mr Paul Gardiner, for Orange, believed a more realistic time for the length of the appeal hearing would be eight to 10 days. Meteor alone had cited 125 grounds of appeal on 12 issues.
The Chief Justice ordered that the regulator and Meteor submit written submissions within four weeks and Orange submits within five weeks. The court, which understood the matter's urgency, would then give the earliest possible date for the hearing, he said.
