Regulator’s collusion claims are nonsensical, says Sure

The Guernsey Competition & Regulatory Authority last week announced it had provisionally found that Sure and fellow telco JT were trying secretly to divide up the Channel Islands mobile network markets.

The competition regulator accused the two companies of having ‘colluded’ by sharing commercial information and agreeing secretly that JT would pull out of its 4G and future 5G networks in Guernsey in return for Sure doing the same in Jersey. Both telcos issued strong responses refuting the claims.

Sure – which is headquartered in Guernsey – has now issued a further robust response to the GCRA’s claims as it seeks to reassure customers of its commitment to the Channel Islands and competition.

‘As a responsible operator we only enter and operate in markets in a fair and reasonable manner. We believe in open markets and sustainable competition,’ said Alistair Beak, acting group chief executive officer at Sure.

‘To suggest, as the GCRA has done, that Sure conducted a secret set of discussions with JT and had agreed to withdraw from the Jersey market borders on the nonsensical – it makes no commercial sense. We would never enter into such an arrangement and are astonished at the regulator’s provisional finding.’

The regulator’s approach was extremely disappointing and Sure had ‘limited faith’ that it would be given a fair hearing through this process, despite what it called a token reference to the provisional nature of the regulator’s findings.

‘We are committed to the islands we operate in and the customers we serve and therefore look forward to being able to clear our name, in court if need be,’ added Mr Beak.

Sure stressed in its statement that the global business was not withdrawing from any market, including Jersey, as evidenced by its ongoing and significant multimillion-pound investment in that market. The regulator’s latest draft decision had also followed on from an earlier attempt to pursue Sure and JT over alleged 5G network sharing.

‘As with that investigation, Sure will vigorously defend the latest round of allegations, which it considers to be spurious.

‘Of particular concern is the regulator’s attempt to portray Sure as having operated in any way clandestinely.

‘In our view, this is wholly at odds with the regulator’s own request that the telecoms operators should enter into discussions, and runs completely counter to the consistent, proactive and open-handed approach that Sure has adopted with the regulator in connection with that request.’

The company had already spent considerable time, effort and money responding to the earlier investigation and would now be forced to repeat this nearly a year and a half later. It would much rather be spending its time on delivering the best possible service to customers, it said.