Orion Telecom expects a decision from the competition court of appeal "within the next few days" as to whether it will be granted access to documents that Telkom claims are confidential.
Yesterday, the court heard arguments from both companies` legal representatives as to whether or not Orion should be granted full access to the agreements signed between Telkom and two former customers of Orion, Edcon and Standard Bank.
Orion claims that it requires full access to these agreements in order to prepare for an application before the competition tribunal in which it is claiming that the monopoly engaged in anti-competitive behaviour in luring these clients away from Orion.
Standard Bank and Edcon chose not to renew their contracts with Orion after Telkom "made them an offer which they could not refuse".
According to Orion`s MD, Don Tredoux, part of the deal appears to have included lucrative discounts for the clients, on local, long-distance and international calls, but only if they took their cellular traffic from Orion`s network in order to take them past the threshold required for the new deal.
He says Telkom has clearly used its position as a public utility to gain the custom of Orion`s clients, as no other inducement would effectively preclude Orion from operating within the cellular telephony market.
"Once the decision of the tribunal is announced, presuming it is in our favour, we will finally be able to show exactly why we are complaining about Telkom using anti-competitive behaviour," says Tredoux.
"We feel that having the full document will really support our case, as we believe these documents are the smoking gun that will prove Telkom`s predatory behaviour."
He says that even if Telkom wins its appeal, this will not stop Orion taking the company on in court, it will simply mean that Orion will have to work with the information it has at present.
"We are waiting with bated breath at present, but we are quietly confident the ruling will be in our favour. However, you obviously cannot predict how these things will turn out," he says.
Telkom media relations specialist Ravin Maharaj says that the organisation expects the Competition Appeal Court to file a verdict in due course.
"Telkom has always maintained that it operates within the current legal and regulatory framework," says Maharaj.
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