THE Commonwealth Telecommunications Commission has received the application for Verizon’s transfer of license to Pacific Telecom.
Pacific Telecom, the consortium of Citadel Holdings Corp. and Tan Holdings Corp., proposes to take over Verizon, which has a monopoly on local, long distance and wireless telecommunications services in the CNMI.
Lawrence P. Knecht, Verizon regional manager-controller and budget/procurement, said the application was submitted to CTC last week.
The commissioners, during their Thursday night meeting, said the “Application to the Commonwealth Telecommunications Commission on Stock Purchase of the Micronesian Telecommunications Corp. by Pacific Telecom, Inc.” will undergo a thorough review.
“It will take us weeks to review this,” CTC Vice Chairman J. Michael Fitzgerald told Variety.
CTC and Verizon declined to release the contents of the application.
Only three of the five CTC members were present during last week’s meeting: Chairman Norman Tenorio, Fitzgerald and Josephine Mesta. Acting CTC Executive Director Adam Turner also attended the meeting.
In related news, CTC has approved the $55,000 contract of its Washington, D.C.-based legal counsel, Thomas Crowe.
The amount covers the remaining months of the current fiscal year.
