SINGTEL and StarHub have finally reached an out-of-court settlement of a long-running dispute over StarHub's use of SingTel's cabling, which potentially involved hundreds of millions of dollars.
The terms of the legal settlement are confidential.
But both telcos said yesterday that the settlement would have no material impact on their financial results. StarHub said it had already made a provision in its books for 'such a cost'.
In 2003, SingTel had filed a suit against StarHub's cable-television unit StarHub Cable Vision (SCV).
It claimed that SCV had tapped cables meant for residential apartment blocks and used them instead to supply cable TV services to about 5,200 HDB commercial properties, as well as 120 other properties including hotels, such as Shangri- La Hotel, schools and community centres.
SingTel claimed that this use of its cabling was a breach by StarHub of a 1995 network agreement.
In April 2005, the High Court ruled that StarHub had breached the lease deal, but said no damages were to be awarded to SingTel.
SingTel appealed and in February last year, the Court of Appeal decided that SingTel would be entitled to damages from StarHub for breach of the network lease deal.
Yesterday was the start of what would have been a three- week hearing to determine the amount of damages.
SingTel's claim for damages was believed to be about $5,200 per strand of fibre per property per month.
On that basis, the sum could have been $332 million a year for the estimated 5,200 HDB commercial properties and 120 other buildings.
The period of tapping ranged from one year to six years.
But StarHub has argued that the $5,200 figure should be significantly lower. It also disputed the claim that damages should be applied to all the properties in question.
Yesterday, StarHub chief executive officer Terry Clontz said: 'The disputes have gone on long enough and it is necessary to have a closure on this chapter and move on.'
SingTel chief executive for Singapore Allen Lew referred to the settlement as 'amicable'. He said that 'it is time to move on and focus on our business to develop and grow Singapore's infocomm industry'.
The 1995 network lease agreement has since been superseded by a 2002 network lease agreement.
The two companies appeared before Justice Kan Ting Chiu yesterday. SingTel was represented by Tan Kok Quan Partnership, while StarHub was represented by Rodyk & Davidson.
