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About 20 thousands Internet users of Caucasus Online were affected by the conflict between United Telecom and Caucasus Online. The problem is still not solved. Although Internet connection for more than 50 percent of disconnected clients is already restored, some are still left without connection.

Argument between United Telecom and Caucasus Online started in 2006. Simple conflict about the rental payment between two companies has grown into a scandal.

Caucasus Online was using a telecommunication infrastructure, property of Elektrokavshiri that was in a state ownership. At that time the rent was low. In 2006 this infrastructure was privatized by the three Georgia, Kazakh and Dutch companies. The name Elektrokavshiri was changed into United Telecom and the management of new private company established new tariffs, which were higher than before. The tariff was presented to Georgian National Communications Commission and was ascertained by them.

During 2006-2008 Caucasus Online was still using this infrastructure, but the representative of United Telecom, Levan Giorgadze, who is in charge of relations with the Georgian National Communications Commission at the company, said: “During three years Caucasus Online was not paying service fees completely and did not accept conditions, which we offered not only to Caucasus Online, but also to other our operators. During years of 2006-2007 and especially 2008, their total dept reached quite solid sum.”

Caucasus Online’s lawyer Vakhtang Tsetskhladze mentioned in the interview with TV Imedi on October 14: “We do not recognize the dept of 3.000.000 Lari. Till today no one has compared amount of cables, which we are renting from United Telecom. As we know the price must be much lower that they are demanding.”

During three years opposing sides could not agree over the terms of the contract. United Telecom decided to take radical steps. They denied Caucasus Online employee access to the infrastructure that resulted into leaving few users without Internet connection. “We gave deadlines to Caucasus Online to pay their dept and to sign the contract, otherwise we kept the right not to serve this company, what means that DSL subscribers of Caucasus Online would be left without Internet, but we did not do so, because interest of subscribers is always most important to us,” said Giorgadze.

The head of legal department of Georgian National Communications Commission Kakhaber Kurashvili, confirms that Caucasus Online was renting infrastructure of United Telecom and was not paying the rent. “United Telecom is private legal entity and had all rights to demand the price what they had established.”

Internet connection provided by Caucasus Online was down in different parts of Tbilisi for about two to three weeks.

Giorgi Mamulashvili 36-year-old, advertising designer lives on Saburtalo Street. He was quite satisfied with the prices and speed of Internet from Caucasus Online, but his Internet was down for about ten days. “I do not care whose fault it was, the fact was that I could not do a lot of work. Main problem was that, when I wanted to ask what was the problem and when would they restore connection, I was calling continuously, but nobody was answering at Caucasus Online.”

Maka Kartvelishvili, 46-year-old translator, lives on Kazbegi Avenue and is also client of Caucasus Online. She depends a lot on her e-mail communication for her work. “I do not want to change provider, but two weeks without Internet is too much, in case of repetition of this kind of problem, I will be forced to change it.”

Anna Chkheidze operator-officer at service centre of Caucasus Online confirms that many cables which were cut down are already restored. “Practically more than 50 percent who did not have Internet connection has no problems today.”

Lawyer of Caucasus Online Vakhtang Tsetskhladze confirms that he has evidence, which proves that United Telecom was willing to disconnect their clients. “We secretly shoot how one person, after working hours entered communications station and was disconnecting our cables, which coincides with the fact when part of our clients were disconnected from the Internet.”

United Telecom denied this accusation. Levan Giorgadze said: “As I know, Caucasus Online users were disconnected because of Supervision Department of Tbilisi City Hall and not because of United Telecom. It was City Hall who cut their illegal cables of optical net, located on residential buildings, not – us.”

Deputy Head of Supervision Department of Tbilisi City Hall, David Avaliani confirms: “In August, 2008 Tbilisi City Hall received a complaint submitted by lawyer Gelashvili on behalf of citizens. They were complaining that Caucasus Online installed cables without permission of residents.” In September 2008 Supervision Department of Tbilisi City Hall started to investigate this case. “They needed official agreement from two thirds of neighbors and official permission from Tbilisi City Hall, it turned out that Caucasus Online did not have any permission to install these cables, so we could not go against law, we were obliged to cut them down, what unfortunately caused damage to consumers,” said Avaliani.

In response Vakhtang Tsetskhladze, lawyer of Caucasus Online declares: “We applied to Tbilisi City Hall and demanded to show us at least one document allowing other communication companies to do this kind of installments, but they could not show us any. United Telecom and Tbilisi City Hall together decided to cut our cables.”

Caucasus Online provides two types of services. The first one is gelink (Gigabit Ethernet Link) project and the other one is DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) technology. The head of the legal department of Georgian National Communications Commission Kakhaber Kurashvili said that the second one needs infrastructure of United Telecom. “It is not cleared yet which kind of service was out of work. If it was gelink system than United Telecom has nothing to do with this and if problems were in the system, which Caucasus Online is renting from United Telecom than to cut the cables down, was outside of City Hall’s competence.

In case of consumer rights violation Georgian National Communications Commission has right to establish financial penalty. However, the commission did not use this right in the above case. “We considered that this method would not be effective and decided to interfere in this conflict and solve the problem, it would be better for consumers,” said Kurashvili, the head of legal department of Georgian National Communications Commission.

United Telecom and Communications Commission declare that the agreement between two companies was achieved in October, 2008. Three sides Georgian National Communications Commission, Caucasus Online and United Telecom agreed that Caucasus Online will have a deadline till November 2008 to pay a dept value of 1.900.000 Lari. “Although we demanded dept of 2.400.000 Lari, court did not approve this sum and we agreed about 1.900.000 Lari, more than half of this amount they already have paid” said Giorgadze, head of relations department with Georgian National Communications Committee.

Giorgadze added that, by the terms of new contract the tariff and main points have not been changed. Both sides are obliged to sign contract officially, United Telecom is responsible for providing Caucasus Online with DSL service and technical infrastructure, Caucasus Online is responsible for payment of monthly fees in time. Both sides need to pay extra fee for additional services: in case of Caucasus Online – fees for 24-hour access to infrastructure and in case of United Telecom – fee for giving users of the company faster access to the websites stored on Caucasus Online servers.

The head of legal department of Georgian National Communications Commission Kakhaber Kurashvili states that agreement is practically reached and Caucasus Online has really paid the half of the sum. By the additional points in the new contract, United Telecom received bank guarantee on behalf of Caucasus Online that will prevent future repetition of such problems.

Although at this time legal and financial issues between two companies are solved, there are still many Internet users who do not have Internet connection even today, but their number is decreasing daily.

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