Speednet (SMART) suing GoB over contracts awarded to BTL (DIGI)
BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 25, 2025
Speednet Communications Ltd., doing business under the brand name SMART, has been granted permission to challenge the decision of the Government of Belize to award two contracts to Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL), which operates under the brand name DIGI Belize. The contracts were awarded in February 2025 as part of the Ministry of Education’s ConnectED program, which aims to deliver high-speed wireless internet to schools across the country. The first phase of ConnectED was launched in July 2022 and was reported to cost $2.5 million at the time. The contracts signed in February of this year for the second phase of the project were for internet provision to 70 schools.
BTL’s Chief Executive Officer Ivan Tesecum and then Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca at ConnectED signing ceremony in February 2025
Speednet intends to argue that the contract awards breached the Finance and Audit Reform Act (FARA), as they were not put out to tender. The company is asking the court to declare the contracts null and void and to have them quashed. Additionally, it is seeking an injunction to halt all the works under the two contracts.
Speednet contends that it did not see any tender notice published, and argues that as BTL’s main competitor (being one of the only two companies granted Individual Licences to provide public telecommunications services in Belize), it should have been invited to bid for the procurement of internet services to schools. The company claims it was unfairly discriminated against and marginalized by the Government which, it says, treats BTL “as if it is one and the same as the Government,” despite the two being separate legal entities. Speednet further asserts that because the Government is the majority shareholder in BTL, there has historically been unfair preferential treatment toward BTL in the award of contracts. As a result, it argues, Speednet was denied a fair opportunity to compete and generate revenue.
Submitted with the application is an affidavit from Speednet CEO, Ernesto Torres. He declares that in August 2022, they wrote the then Attorney General, Magali Marin-Young, raising concern about the award of the ConnectED contract and asking for “written evidence of its [the Government’s] commitment to take immediate action which will ensure its future compliance with FARA in the procurement of services by contract, and to ensure accountability, fairness, and transparency for all service providers concerned.” He added that if they did not take legal action, Speednet would “continue to be treated unfairly, and that Digi will continue to be the preferred provider of services to the Government to our detriment.” Torres says there was no reply, but that the company decided not to sue the Government at the time, having regard for the importance of the project and the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education of students.
ConnectED sign displayed at beneficiary school
In the application for judicial review filed on May 27, 2025, Speednet disclosed that it has been involved in “without prejudice” negotiations with the Government, but that the Government, to date, had failed to disclose documentation which they requested in a pre-action protocol letter issued on April 15, 2025. Speednet says that only receipt was acknowledged by the Prime Minister and the Attorney General’s office. The requested documentation included any and all documents related to the procurement of internet services from Digi, copies of the contracts, a list of all payments made and balance owed to Digi under the ConnectED program, and all communication with the Contractor General regarding the Digi contracts.
Justice Derrick Sylvester held an ex-parte hearing on June 12 and granted leave for judicial review.
Speednet is being represented by Senior Counsel Jaqueline Marshalleck.
Named as first defendant in the application is Minister of Education, Hon. Oscar Requena. Ironically, the Prime Minister, Hon. John Briceño, who is the brother of Speednet principal and minority shareholder, Jaime Briceño, is named as second defendant. The majority shares in Speednet are held by the Ashcroft Alliance.
(AMANDALA Ed. Note: If there is any current legal basis for a private telecommunications company, Speednet (SMART), to sue our Belize government for unilaterally awarding a telephone services contract to its government-owned telecommunications company, BTL (DIGI), it would be an opportune time for GoB to utilize its Constitutional authority to enact retroactive legislation to remove that legal option from the Ashcroft-owned Speednet (SMART) or any other private company. It was extremely displeasing to many when it was learned that the telephone services contract for certain government departments had been removed from BTL and awarded to SMART under the current administration. But that was not bad enough—“give them an inch, they take a mile …” If this obscene “loophole” is left unaddressed, at some point private insurance companies will be prosecuting Government to force it to purchase their particular insurance packages for its whole fleet of vehicles at an astronomical cost to taxpayers. Is this another example of neo-colonialism at work? Hopefully, our best legal minds will see that our revised Constitution protects the Belizean patrimony from these kinds of modern-day pillaging, like the multi-million-dollar land reacquisition scam that has long plagued the Jewel, before we all wake up one day to find that another flag is flying over this “blessed choice” that we once thought we owned.)
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